Critical Disability Studies Caucus

The caucus sponsors the “Best Paper in Critical Disability Studies by Graduate, Contingent, Or Independent Scholar” award. Graduate students (MA, PhD), academics who hold a contingent position, and independent scholars not affiliated with an academic institution, and who have had papers accepted for the annual meeting, may submit for consideration

Award for Best Paper in Critical Disability Studies by a Graduate, Contingent, Or Independent Scholar

The prize includes a certificate and recognition at the ASA Annual Meeting.

Papers may deal with any aspect of disability studies, but we encourage applicants to ground themselves in current scholarship, for example by: 

• Using disability studies as an epistemology and methodology; 
• Examining disability as a contested category that is constructed through race, gender, sexuality, and geographic location; and 
• Exploring disability studies as a field with multiple genealogies. 

Papers that have been previously accepted for publication are ineligible.

Submissions

The following required materials should be submitted as a single PDF when the award cycle opens later this year:

• the conference paper (3,500 word maximum, including citations and notes)
• a cover page including the author’s name, paper title, institutional affiliation (if any), and contact information

Submissions will be accepted later in 2026. Please contact criticaldisabilitycaucus<at>gmail.com with any questions.

Past Winners

• 2024: Jiya Pandya (Doctoral Candidate in History, Princeton University), for “Provincializing Disability Studies: A Transnational Revisionist History”
• 2023: Nicholas Villarreal (PhD student in Cultural Studies, University of California Davis), for “Keto: How Anti-Fat Ideologies of Cure Are Deployed As “Science””
• 2020-2022: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the caucus did not give graduate student paper awards during these years.
• 2019: Sarah Orsak (Doctoral Candidate in Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University), for “‘No Freak of Nature’: Capacity, Species, and Freedom in Thylias Moss’ Slave Moth”
  • Honorable Mention: Ka-eul Yoo (PhD Candidate in Literature, University of California Santa Cruz) for “Deformed Ambassadors: The ‘Red’ Threat and U.S. Hansen’s Disease Controlling Policies in Cold War Korea”
• 2018: No award given
• 2017: Emily L Rogers for “Sick and Tired: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and ‘Anti-Scientism(s)’”
  • Honorable mention: Ittai Orr for “Robert Montgomery Bird’s Neurodiversity Hypothesis”
• 2016: Jessica Cowing for “Obesity and (Un)fit Homes: Health and Belonging in a Settler Nation”