Welcome to this term’s first K3 seminar. It will be held by Elisabet Apelmo, visual artist and sociologist at the Department of Social Work, Malmö University. The title of the talk is:

Non-disabled bodies, gazes and emotions. A visual study in ableism in the crossroad of artistic and feminist sociological research.

It will take place on Wednesday, January 23 at 10.15-12.00 in The K3 Open Studio, NIC 0541, Niagara.

Below you will find an abstract for the talk.

The project draws from Apelmo’s double competence as both visual artist and sociologist. The purpose is to explore cultural representations of able-bodied people’s gazes and emotions in the meeting with the physically disabled body. The intersection between gender (that is, different forms of masculinities and femininities), class and dis/ability (that is, both bodies that are considered to have ‘normal’ physical ability and the ones that are regarded as deviant) will be analysed. The project is situated within critical disability studies and draws from theories about body, gazes and emotions. Three analytical methods will be used: (1) visual analysis, (2) associative writing and a research diary and (3) the making of public works of art and texts. The aims of the project are, firstly, to create an understanding of different practices of looking and thus contribute to a challenge of the cultural forces of ableism. Secondly, to explore how feminist sociology and visual arts may inform and develop each other.