International scientific seminar "The Right to Independent Living: Selected Challenges for the Disability Policy"

Key speakers:

Ina Dimitrova received her PhD in social and political philosophy from Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of social philosophy and bioethics at the Department of Philosophy and History, University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Her research interests include disability studies, politics of reproduction and population, as well as social studies of science, technology, and medicine. Her current research is focused on disability activism, disability history and the history of the psy-sciences in the socialist context.

Maureen Piggot, OBE, is a member of the European Disability Forum’s Executive Committee. She is a former President of Inclusion Europe, the association of people with intellectual disability. Maureen has worked in education, social services and the disability sector. As the director of Mencap in Northern Ireland from 1990 to 2014, her responsibilities included leading the policy advocacy of an extensive membership network and the delivery of support services, including early intervention, employment, supported housing, information and advocacy. Under her leadership, governance and representation were reformed to support the participation of people with intellectual disability at all levels. In 2008, her advocacy for the rights and inclusion of people with intellectual disability was recognised with an award of the Order of the British Empire.

Programme

• 9.30–10.00 – Registration, welcome coffee
• 10.00–10.10 – Opening of the seminar, welcoming the participants, introduction
• 10.10–12.00 – Theoretical Challenges of Analysing Disability Policy in the Context of Independent Living
  • Ina Dimitrova, PhD (University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria), Disablement in postsocialist CEE and the case of Bulgaria
  • Magdalena Kocejko, PhD (SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland),
  • Zbigniew Głąb, PhD (University of Lodz, Poland, University of Lodz Centre of Disability and Accessibility Studies), Disability policy in Poland in a perspective of cruel optimism
  • Inna Studennikova (Kyiv School of Economics, Ukraine), The Complexity of Disability Policy in Contemporary Ukraine (TBC)
  • moderator: Andrzej Klimczuk, PhD (SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland)
• 12.00–12.30 – Coffee break
• 12.30–14.20 – Practical Conditions for Implementing Disability Policy in the Context of Independent Living
  • Maureen Piggot (European Disability Forum, Belgium), Independent living – breaking the impasse in Europe
  • Krzysztof Kurowski, PhD (Polish Disability Forum), What measures should be implemented at the national level to facilitate independent living? Examples from Poland 
  • Anna Drabarz, PhD (Polish Disability Forum), Independent living at the local level: Perspective from the ground 
  • moderator: Magdalena Kocejko, PhD (SGH Warsaw School of Economics)
• 14.20–14.30 – Closing remarks 
• 14.30–15.00 – Lunch

Registration

Please register by October 25, 2024, at magdalena.kocejko@sgh.waw.pl

The number of places is limited. The order in which applications are received will determine the outcome.

Financed by the Minister of Science under the “Regional Excellence Initiative” Programme