Kafer frames the grounding of crip manifestos not just in imagining crip futures but also working towards crip presents as important because a manifesto based solely in creating a better future without attending to the present can be constantly deferred as actions needing to happen later, and lead to increasingly delayed futures.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The authors decided to frame their recommendations as a manifesto as a response to Allison Kafer's framing of crip manifestos. A crip manifesto is framed as unending dedication to create spaces that embrace disability fluidity. Kafer frames crip menifestos as also doing the work of not just imagining futures but also still attending to the present by holding space for both everyday actions and overarching structural change.

Crip Manifestos

Crip futures is used to describe futures where the tenets of crip studies detailed in this article (interdependence, crip time, and the fluidity of disability) uproot the academic ableism our current system is seeped in. In order for crip future to come to fruition we must work to challenge the ableist limitations of day-to-day academic functioning.

Crip Futures in Academia

Kafer, A. (2017). "Health rebels: A crip manifesto for social justice" [keynote]. Shepard Symposium on Social Justice, Laramie, WY, USA.

Health rebels: A crip manifesto for social justice

Abrams, E. J., Floyd, C. E., & Abes, E. S. (2024). Prioritizing Crip Futures: Applying Crip Theory to Create Accessible Academic Experiences in Higher Education. Disability Studies Quarterly, 43(4). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v43i4.8270

Prioritizing Crip Futures: Applying Crip Theory to Create Accessible Academic Experiences in Higher Education

The Dual Temporality of Crip Manifestos

In order to work toward truly transformational crip futures we must not just look working towards embracing the tenets of cripping classrooms within academia but we also have to look at who is kept out of academia - we must crip admissions processes. Disabled students are often kept out of academia because of ableist notions of who can be a college student. In order to truly pursue crip futures we have to think about compulsory ablebodiedness and compulsory ablemindedness plays into admissions processes.

Crip futures and Academic Gatekeeping

Crip futures must be intersectionally approached. Floyd and Abrams acknowledge that their accounts of academic ableism are shaped by their whiteness and that their whiteness shielded them from some of the harsher consequences of academic ableism. Their whiteness also allowed Floyd to be valued as a learner in the interdependent classroom discussed. Abes also recognizes her whiteness can limit how she works towards crip futures because racism encourages white faculty, even those engaged in creating crip futures to overlook the experiences of disabled students of color.

Learn Before

Related