F.11. Toward an Embodied Crip Pedagogy: Activism, Interdependence, and Democratic Transformation in Educational Spaces
In contemporary educational contexts characterised by the resurgence of ableist, racist, classist and cisheteropatriarchal norms, the body becomes the primary site where democratic participation is negotiated. Disabled, queer and otherwise marginalised subjects increasingly encounter surveillance, discipline and normative regulation that shape their right to inhabit educational spaces and to be recognised as full democratic agents.
The panel adopts a crip lens as an epistemological and methodological foundation, following the formulation of the emerging field of Crip Studies (Centrone, 2025; McRuer, 2006) that weave together contributions from diverse fields that centre the body as a pedagogical and political site shaped by intersecting structures of power and develops multidimensional tools to interrogate how hierarchies of gender, race, class, disability and sexuality are produced, sustained and contested.
This approach allows us to analyse how ableist and cisheteropatriarchal logics operate within educational institutions while generating tools for reimagining democratic participation through embodied, interdependent and socially just pedagogical practices. It repositions the body as a relational and political entity, foregrounding vulnerability and ecosociality as foundations for democratic coexistence (Costantino et al., 2025).
We welcome theoretical and empirical papers on:
– the interrelationship between disability and other identity axes in education and activism;
– manifestations of compulsory able-bodiedness in schooling and teacher–student relations;
– how crip theory challenges compulsory able-bodiedness in pedagogical and activist spaces;
– the role of educational ICT in fostering or hindering oppressive practices;
– activism resistance strategies (care practices, minority stress management, etc.);
– pedagogical resistance strategies (self-training, shared knowledge production);
– embodied pedagogical approaches, including comics and applied theatre.