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Karen Kume Yoshida

Professor, Critical Disability Studies, University of Toronto

I graduated in 1991 with a Ph.D in Community Health from the Dept. of Behavioural Sciences, now the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. I am a tenured professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, University of Toronto and have taught in this Department since 1991 to the present. My teaching and research expertise is in Critical Disability Studies and I have been awarded an Ontario Career Scientist research award in Disability and Rehabilitation (1992- 2003) and a Career Refocusing award in Gender and Health (2004-2006). I conduct my teaching and research in equitable partnerships with diverse disability communities, locally, regionally, provincially, nationally and internationally. i am a disability studies scholar and non-disabled ally. I was President of the Canadian Disability Studies Association in 2014 and executive member from 2031- 2015. In 2020, I was the recipient of the English Tanis Doe
Award, Canadian Disability Studies Association. The CDSA-ACEH Tanis Doe Award was first awarded in 2009, and is named for the activist and professor Tanis Doe. This award honours an individual who dares to “speak the unspeakable” in advancing the study and culture of disability, and who has enriched through research, teaching, or activism the lives of Canadians with disabilities. .

Experience

  • –present
    Professor, Critical Disability Studies, University of Toronto

Education

  • 1991 
    University of Toronto, Doctor of Philosophy, Community Health

Honours

In 2020, I was the recipient of the English Tanis Doe Award, Canadian Disability Studies Association. The CDSA-ACEH Tanis Doe Award was first awarded in 2009, and is named for the activist and professor Tanis Doe. This award honours an individual who dares to “speak the unspeakable” in advancing the study and culture of disability, and who has enriched through research, teaching, or activism the lives of Canadians with disabilities. .