Albright College will offer a discussion tackling issues between religion and disabilities as part of Diversity Week, April 11, at 4:30 p.m. The free and open event will be held in the Science Center lecture hall.
Presenter Darla Schumm, Ph.D., explains that religious language about “sinners” and “saints” has sometimes perpetuated the idea that people with disabilities are inferior. Schumm uses feminist disability studies scholar Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s concept of “misfitting” to challenge some of these controlling images and to reorient our thinking about disability more generally.
The John P. Wheeler professor of religion at Hollins University, Schumm researches intersections between religious studies and disability studies. She is the co-editor of four volumes on religion and disability, most recently “Disability and World Religions: An Introduction.”
She is currently writing a book on religion and disability in America — chronicling a sociologically based study of the experiences of people with disabilities in religious communities and organizations around the nation.
