Dis-/Abilities and Digital Media

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Robert Stock
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 439948242

Contemporary digital media practices developed and employed by people with disabilities is an important and growing research field, which unfortunately has been neglected by German Media Studies. In-depth analyses regarding the relationships between diversely abled bodies, sensory experiences and (digital) media technologies as well as critical reflections of the concepts of assistive technologies, media participation and cooperative media are still in their infancy. The proposed scientific network will address these urgent topics and map the field by exploring innovative research approaches and methodologies and by establishing and strengthening links to international scholars in Disability Media Studies.Going beyond the approach of Disability Studies, the scientific network analyses how bodies and technologies are linked with each other in manifold ways and in specific constellations. The member’s work focuses on the multi-layered character of agencies, which do not only comprise of human bodies, but also technical objects, devices, prostheses, algorithms etc. Thus dis-/abilities are scrutinized as enabling as well as disabling practices of bodies and technologies with a particular focus on digital mediators.By concentrating on discourses, practices and materiality, the network will systematically approach the notions of agency, assistance, accessibility and sensory experiences in order to analytically grasp the complex associations of bodies and assistive devices or technologies. This interplay of dis-/abilities and digital media will be discussed from different methodical perspectives of the various disciplines involved.Strong emphasis lies on the development of a media theoretically grounded research work. Further participating disciplines are Media and Cultural History, Media Sociology, Theatre Studies and Literary Studies. The network’s interdisciplinary framework will provide recent scholarly debates on dis-/abilities with new impulses, particularly regarding the significance of media technologies in their everyday uses and performative as well as socio-material dimensions. In particular, approaches developed and discussed in Germany, Austria and Switzerland will be connected in a productive way to current research on disability and media in the USA as well as in Canada.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Christian Meier zu Verl