About us
Disability will directly or indirectly affect most people at some point in their lives. The work on disability in Sociology at the University of Glasgow starts from a position of seeing disability as a social justice issue.
Our history
The Centre for Disability Research was established in 1996. The Centre was initially funded from a bequest by Strathclyde Regional Council to the University of Glasgow.
Our remit is to provide an academic base for research and teaching in social aspects of disability.
Disability will directly or indirectly affect most people at some point in their lives.The work on disability in Sociology at the University of Glasgow starts from a position of seeing disability as a social justice issue.
This includes not only understanding the impact of long-term conditions and impairments on individuals, but also the barriers, discrimination and prejudice that disadvantage disabled people locally and globally.
How we work
Our teaching is led by our research. Adopting a critical, theory-driven approach, we highlight the barriers disabled people face and explore the intersections between disability and age, class, gender, ethnicity and sexuality.
We carry out research on a range of topics, including poverty and welfare reform, transitions for young disabled people, education, training and employment, migration, hate crime, health, social care, COVID19, history of disability, the embodied dimensions of disability, mental distress, participation, and the legal needs of disabled people.
Our work is collaborative including with disabled peoples’ organisations (DPOs) and other disability research centres (e.g. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Lancaster University).
In carrying out our research we draw on a wide range of disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, social policy, science and technology studies and the history of science.
We are multidisciplinary in our approach, and so we are based in the:
We work closely with other research units in the University such as the Scottish Learning Disability Observatory, the Scottish Centre for Crime and Criminal Justice Research.
Previous collaborators include Children’s Neighbourhoods Scotland and What Works Scotland.