Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights
Disability, Visibility, Intimacy and Justice:
A Conversation with Alice Wong
EVENT UPDATE
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights event with Alice Wong, originally scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, has been postponed.
Rescheduling details will be shared here as they become available. Thank you for your interest in this event.
How can each of us make a difference in the fight for justice and create a world we want to live in where communities can flourish collectively? How does disability justice inform the conversation about some of the most urgent issues of our times? And what’s love got to do with it?
In the 2024 VLHR, celebrated and groundbreaking disabled activist, writer, media maker, and author Alice Wong will discuss these crucial questions and more with U of A scholar and Canada Research Chair in Disability and Movement Cultures, Dr. Danielle Peers.
VLHR Reading Group
In the months leading up to Alice Wong’s talk, we are hoping to encourage as many people as possible to engage with some of Alice’s most influential works. Please visit the Council on Systemic Ableism’s website for links to readings and opportunities for deeper engagement.
Alice Wong
Alice Wong is a disabled activist, writer, media maker, and consultant. She is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.
“I never intended to be an activist. But my life has always been political. I cannot escape it. I have lived this every day ever since I was a child who had to grow up fast, a child of immigrants advocating for herself to teachers and doctors. When I became older and understood white supremacy, ableism, and structural oppression, I realized the fight was not just for myself but for everyone marginalized and devalued by institutions, systems, and practices. It is the epitome of privilege when people say they are non-political. One only has to see how COVID minimizes and misinformation gaslights people with long COVID and renders high-risk marginalized people disposable as we approach the fourth year of this never-ending plague. My recent near-death experience reaffirmed how fragile everything is. I dream of a day when I can just be and it would be enough. I wish for all disabled people the choice of becoming an activist rather than being forced to as a means of survival.”
Recognized for her service to the community and activism at the local and US-national level, Alice has received the following awards:
- Beacon Award by the San Francisco Mayor’s Disability Council (2010)
- Disability Service Award by the University of California, San Francisco(2011)
- AAPD Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award (2016), an award for emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community.
She is widely published and her activism and work has been featured in international media. Named in 2020 as one of Time Magazines 16 people fighting for equality in America she was also named changemaker in 2021 by Marie Claire magazine.
Alice Wong has recently been named one of the 2024 Macarthur Foundation fellows, often known as "genius grant recipients"
Alice is the editor of Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century (Vintage Books, 2020), an anthology by disabled people. Her memoir, Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life (Vintage Books, 2022) won the Creative Nonfiction category of the 42nd Annual Northern California Book Awards. Her new book is Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care and Desire (Vintage, April 30, 2024), an anthology about the relationships, communities, and intimacies of disabled people. She is currently working on a forthcoming book Disability Vulnerability (Vintage Books, 2026), an anthology of writing that explores the precarity of life in the disabled community, focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing fallout.
The University of Alberta Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights is envisioned as one of the preeminent annual events held at the University. Individuals or organizations that have made outstanding contributions in the field of human rights and human rights protection are invited to deliver a major public lecture in Edmonton. During their visit, they also participate in other significant events at the U of A, the City of Edmonton and the Province of Alberta.
The first Lectureship, held in the fall of 1998, coincided with the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights proclamation.
The University of Alberta Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights aims to:
- Offer the people of the Province of Alberta a significant and educational way of annually celebrating the commitments we undertook as signatories of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights.
- Support and nurture Albertans' continuing interest and illustrious involvement with human rights at home and abroad.
- Demonstrate the University of Alberta's commitment to helping students and Albertans understand complex human rights issues. This is especially important as the University and its graduates pursue economic, social and political alliances with peoples around the world. In creating these linkages, it is important that we are aware of and sensitive to situations involving the exploitation of others.
- Serve as an annual reminder to the people of Alberta of the need to protect human rights within our own province.
- Continue the University of Alberta's tradition of providing a safe environment to discuss controversial and difficult subjects and by doing so, provide students, faculty and staff with the opportunity to learn, question and participate in events shaping the world in which we live.
The University of Alberta invites you to nominate individuals or organizations who would make outstanding lecturers.
We gratefully acknowledge the hard work of the donors and volunteers who help make the Lectureship a success.
Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights Internship Award
U of A students interested in work experience in human rights issues can spend up to six months interning with a Canadian or international human rights organization or at another organization that pursues human rights initiatives.
The VHLR award allowed me to go abroad to Berlin, Germany, for a three-month internship with an organization called Global Innovation Gathering (GIG), which supports locally driven, cutting-edge solutions to tackle complex developmental challenges and champion social justice. A passion of mine is empowering people, meaning giving them the resources and strength to achieve their dreams and make things possible. The VHLR award allowed me to transform my aspirations into tangible actions; I can confidently say that my internship has been a transformative experience.
– Ann, Undergraduate Student - Faculty of Arts, Political Science