Event Schedule
Introduction
Check out the DCC Symposium Event Schedule below! [Last Updated: January 2026]
Each session listed in the drop-down menus below contains a Zoom Link, event description, and a list of presenters. The list of presenters are listed with the DCC they represent or their current institutional affiliation. Most sessions end with a Q&A session with the audience.
To access a text-only version of the schedule via Google Docs, click the boxed link below. If the schedule formats are not accessible for you, please get in touch with us via email at dcc@uic.edu.
Event Schedule: Text-Only Version
General Symposium Information
Access Information
We’re committed to making the Symposium on Disability Cultural Centers in Higher Education as accessible as possible. Sessions were hosted via Zoom, and we had CART Captioning and ASL Interpreting for all sessions throughout the virtual symposium.
Presenters were encouraged to provide image descriptions and access copies, which were shared in the Zoom chat. We generally keep the chat quiet during presentations, and during any Q&A portions, attendees were invited to participate in the chat or by unmuting and speaking out.
For any other access requests, please contact the Disability Cultural Center via dcc@uic.edu
Session Recordings
We hope that the conversations we have during the DCC Symposium will enjoy an afterlife as a public repository of wisdom about Disability Cultural Centers.
To that end, we have recorded all sessions, except for the final session entitled “Reverse Panel / Ask Us Anything (Q&A),” and uploaded them to the DCC Symposium website. Anyone can access these session recordings asynchronously.
As ever, please contact the Disability Cultural Center via dcc@uic.edu with any questions or concerns!
Community Agreements
- What is shared in this space, stays here. But what you learn here, can leave this space.
- Acknowledge that discrimination and oppression exists in many forms (e.g. sexism, racism, Anti-Blackness, classism, ageism, homophobia, ableism, transphobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, fatphobia etc.)
- We will assume people are doing the best that they can. We all make mistakes despite our intentions. However even good intentions can have harmful impacts, therefore when someone says something offensive or inappropriate we will call them in. This is a learning environment and we are all constantly learning and (hopefully) trying to do better.
- We will share information about our groups with other individuals and we will never demean, devalue, or in any way put down people for their experiences.
Credit to Sav Schlauderaff and the University of Arizona DCC for sharing and shaping these guidelines.
Adapted from Teaching Transformation by AnaLouise Keating, Ph.D.
Full Zoom-Joining Information
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Day One: Friday, July 8
Day 1 of the Symposium looks to the past to collect wisdom about the “why” and “how” of creating DCCs.
10:00am - 11:00am: Welcome, Day 1
Description: Welcome to the DCC Symposium & Keynote Conversation with Dr. Sandie Yi
Presenters:
- Dr. Margaret Fink
- Director, Disability Cultural Center, University of Illinois Chicago
- Dr. Amalia Pallares
- Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Engagement, University of Illinois Chicago
- Keynote Conversation with Dr. Sandie Yi
Sandie Yi is an assistant professor in the art therapy and counseling department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). She is a disabled artist and disability culture-worker whose work focuses on unconventional wearable objects that explores the desire and intimacy shared by the disabled bodymind. Yi’s art, Crip Couture, calls for a recognition of disability as an aesthetic choice and suggests a new genre of wearable art, Crip Fashion. Crip Couture is Yi’s efforts and practice for cultivating care relationships and helping relationships. The latest rendition of Crip Couture archives disability narratives by collecting bodily artifacts, including skin flakes and hair. Crip Couture aims to preserve and conserve disability culture and narratives as heritage. Yi has a Ph.D. in Disability Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago; a MA in art therapy from SAIC, and MFA from the University of California Berkeley. Yi’s academic research interests include disability arts and culture, access pedagogy, disability fashion and disability culture-informed art therapy. In addition, she is in charge of the Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL), a partnering project with Access Living, the independent living center in Chicago.
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11:30am - 12:30pm: Roundtable: Why Disability Culture?
Description: In response to the Keynote, panelists will discuss the following: How do you talk about disability culture and the need for your center?
Presenters:
- Brittany Tewari
- Stanford University
- Dr. Diane Wiener
- Syracuse University
- Ann Wai-Yee Kwong
- University of California, Berkeley
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2:00pm - 3:00pm: Histories: Roundtable 1 [UMN & Syracuse]
Description: Presenters will discuss the history of specific DCCs. What is the center’s story? What was the campaign like? Who was involved? What challenges were faced in establishing the center?
Presenters:
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- Aysha Razzaque
- Syracuse University
- Dr. Liat Ben-Moshe
- Dr. Diane Wiener
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3:30pm - 4:30pm: Histories: Roundtable 2 [UIC & Arizona]
Description: Presenters will discuss the history of specific DCCs. What is the center’s story? What was the campaign like? Who was involved? What challenges were faced in establishing the center?
Presenters:
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Nell Koneczny
- Zoie Sheets
- Dr. Hailee Yoshizaki-Gibbons
- Roxana Stupp
- University of Arizona
- Dr. Toni Saia
- Dr. Dev Bose
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5:00pm - 6:00pm: Histories: Roundtable 3 [Miami & Berkeley]
Description: Presenters will discuss the history of specific DCCs. What is the center’s story? What was the campaign like? Who was involved? What challenges were faced in establishing the center?
Presenters:
- Miami University (Ohio)
- Stephanie Dawson
- Dan Darkow
- University of California, Berkeley
- Karen Nielson
- Ann Wai-Yee Kwong
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7:00pm - 8:30pm: Why DCCs? Research on the Impact of Disability Cultural Centers
Description: We’ll learn from scholars building a body of knowledge about Disability Cultural Centers and their impact.
Presenters:
- Dr. liz thomson (PhD in Disability Studies, University of Illinois Chicago)
- Current Institution: University of Minnesota, Morris
- Dr. Toni Saia (PhD in Counseling Education and Supervision, University of Arizona)
- Current Institution: San Diego State University
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Day Two: Saturday, July 9
Day 2 of the Symposium will focus on DCCs’ existing practices and nurturing DCCs as they grow.
10:00am - 10:30am: Welcome, Day 2
Description: Attendees will be welcomed for the second day, followed by a reflection on Day 1 from DCC Symposium Coordinator Javin D’Souza.
Presenters:
- Dr. Margaret Fink
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Javin D’Souza
- University of Illinois Chicago
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11:00am - 12:30pm: Lessons from Building
Description: Presenters will share from their experiences in the first year of a newly-formed DCC. How did they set to work? What were the ways they focused their energies, and the lessons learned?
Presenters:
- Dr. Diane Wiener
- Syracuse University
- Dr. Carrie Sandahl
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Ann Wai-Yee Kwong
- University of California, Berkeley
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A1 - Designing a DCC
Description: Presenters will discuss their community spaces, staffing and work cultures, and funding/budgeting. Learn about the nuts-and-bolts of speakers’ experiences in thoughtfully setting up a DCC.
Presenters:
- Brittany Tewari
- Stanford University
- Dr. Toni Saia
- University of Arizona
- Current Institution: San Diego State University
- University of Arizona
- Dr. Margaret Fink
- University of Illinois Chicago
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A2 - Centering Student Leadership & Engagement
Description: Learn about how DCCs have built or continued relationships with student activists and student organizations, and how students have shaped the DCCs’ work.
Presenters:
- Dan Darkow
- Miami University (Ohio)
- Sylvie Rosenkalt
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Aysha Razzaque
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
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3:30pm - 4:30pm: Programs: Successes & Learning Curves
Description: Presenters will share their approach to programming and different kinds of core programs DCCs have developed– examples of programs, what has worked well, and any aspects they’ve had to negotiate and learn from.
Presenters:
- Naty Rico
- University of Arizona
- Dr. Emily Beitiks
- San Francisco State University
- Dr. Margaret Fink
- University of Illinois Chicago
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B1 - Building Partnerships On & Off Campus
Description: Presenters will discuss their experiences with developing internal and external partnerships with organizations or campus units to grow disability culture, embrace cross-movement solidarity, and create programming.
Presenters:
- Dr. liz thomson
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Current Institution: University of Minnesota, Morris
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Naty Rico
- University of Arizona
- Karen Nielson
- University of California, Berkeley
- Dr. Emily Beitiks
- San Francisco State University
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B2 - Envisioning a Culture of Accessibility on Campus
Description: This panel is about the role DCCs play in shifting the overall culture of their institutions. Presenters will discuss their vision for the DCC’s role in an ecosystem of change; how DCCs can shape the larger campus climate for disabled students, staff, and faculty; and/or any “wins” and advice about making an impact.
Presenters:
- Julia Rose Karpicz
- Researcher on Accessibility in Higher Education
- Current Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
- Researcher on Accessibility in Higher Education
- Stephanie Dawson
- Miami University (Ohio)
- Dr. Diane Wiener
- Syracuse University
- Aysha Razzaque
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
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7:00pm - 8:30pm: Reverse Panel / Ask Us Anything
Description: We’ll close our Symposium with an experimental “reverse panel” where the audience is invited to co-mentor one another, ask questions, and share ideas.
Students hoping to create a Center as well as anyone involved in creating a new Center are welcome.
This is the only session of the DCC Symposium that will NOT be recorded.
Session flow:
- Welcome, land acknowledgement, access invitation, and explaining the format
- Hive mind response to pre-submitted questions (link below!)
- Open Question and Answer
- Closing and thank yous
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