Faculty Reading Group
Each semester, faculty gather to read and discuss a book on teaching and learning.
Join the reading group
Each fall (and sometimes in the spring), CETL hosts a reading group open to all university faculty. CETL purchases books for attendees, which are available for pick-up in advance of our first meeting. We meet three times over the course of the semester to discuss the selected book.
Spring 2025
In this spring reading group, we invite UM campus members to explore the book Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education by Jay Dolmage, a leading scholar in disability studies. Over the course of three sessions, we’ll discuss the ideas from the book in the context of our campus. We invite faculty, staff, and students to join us.
Please note: CETL will not purchase copies of this book for participants since the book is available online as an open resource.
Sessions will be held via Zoom on three Fridays during the spring semester:
- Friday, January 31, 1:00-2:00 pm
- Friday, February 21, 1:00-2:00 pm
- Friday, March 21, 1:00-2:00 pm
Register for the Reading Group
Learn more about the Spring 2025 title
"Academic Ableism brings together disability studies and institutional critique to recognize the ways that disability is composed in and by higher education, and rewrites the spaces, times, and economies of disability in higher education to place disability front and center. For too long, argues Jay Timothy Dolmage, disability has been constructed as the antithesis of higher education, often positioned as a distraction, a drain, a problem to be solved. The ethic of higher education encourages students and teachers alike to accentuate ability, valorize perfection, and stigmatize anything that hints at intellectual, mental, or physical weakness, even as we gesture toward the value of diversity and innovation. Examining everything from campus accommodation processes, to architecture, to popular films about college life, Dolmage argues that disability is central to higher education, and that building more inclusive schools allows better education for all."
Register for the reading group above!