Research
Disability Studies and Inclusive Education take a critical approach towards social norms, ideas of normalcy, cultural differences and unequal relations in society. The research of the teaching and research team is multidisciplinary and analyses disabling processes in different fields of society.
Prof. Lisa Pfahl researches processes of knowledge generation about social inequality, disability and gender, subjectivation in education and employment, as well as social movements and norms of equality. She organises the Subjectivation Research Working Group of the German Society for Sociology.
Dr. Julia Biermann conducts comparative education research. She studies the reform of educational systems in Nigeria and Germany as well as the worldwide transfer of educational policies and programmes.
Dr. Michael Rasell analyses the evolution of disability rights activism and inclusive social services in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Dr. David Furtschegger studies the development of inclusive schools, including their foundations in social theory.
Rouven Seebo studies the self-representation practices of people with disabilities in social media.
Zoe* Steinsberger studies transwomen’s subjectivation and their precarisation in post-fordist employment practices.
When disseminating research results, the teaching and research team seeks to make educational science contributions to debates on inclusion, human rights and civil society as well as address international scientific communities and diverse professional fields.
- The Zeitschrift für Disability Studies / ZDS Journal of Disability Studies addresses the German-language academic and activist community.
- The digital library bidok.at and bidokbib.at supports knowledge transfer and networking with the disability movement and disability services, thus contributing to the University of Innsbruck’s civic mission.
The Teaching and Research team is a member of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research Innsbruck, the Medical Humanities Research Centre and the Doctoral School on Gender: Spaces, Relations and Representations.
Information about current research projects can be found on the individual webpages of staff in Disability Studies and Inclusive Education.
Overview of academic networks and newsletters in Disability Studies (selection)