APAC Professional Seminar Series: What is Ableism? Unlearning Assumptions, Ideas, and Stereotypes

This event offers participants the opportunity to learn more about ableism. This event will cover the definition of ableism, how ableism is present in the current world of working virtually, and the different implicit biases associated with disabilities. There will be activities led by speaker Hugo Trevino and Dr. Margaret Fink for participants to engage in the practice of self-reflection as part of exploring these topics.

REGISTER TODAY TO RECEIVE ZOOM LINK:
https://uic.ca1.qualtrics.com/Q/EditSection/Blocks?ContextSurveyID=SV_2aUj47Wwq2OZHka

Speakers Information:

Hugo Trevino:

Hugo is a Disability Specialist at the Disability Resource Center. Hugo is a first generation Mexican American, who earned his degree in Spanish and Translation Studies at University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana (UIUC) in August 2014. During his undergraduate career, he studied abroad 3 times to Costa Rica, China, and Taiwan. His passion for education, student affairs, and travel, inspired him to obtain his Master of Education in International Higher Education in December 2018, from Loyola University Chicago where he was able to study abroad in Vietnam and Italy. Before joining the UIC team, he was very fortunate to work for non-profit organizations where he was able to help Latinx, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities in multi-faceted of ways including education, healthcare, and self-advocacy to name a few. This passion of service has led him to the University of Illinois at Chicago where he works with students with disabilities to make sure they have equal access to a higher education and helps them achieve their full potential here at UIC and beyond.

Dr. Margaret Fink:

Margaret is the Director of the Disability Cultural Center. She joined the Disability Cultural Center staff as Director in 2019. She identify as a white, cisgender woman who is deaf. As an adult, she’s learned some sign language, but she grew up mainstreamed in hearing culture. She received her PhD in English Literature from the University of Chicago, and her academic interests focus around representations of disability and everydayness, particularly the formal choices that build certain concepts of disability in relationship to race. One of her primary questions has been: what can visual representation say, convey, or be ambiguous about that textual representation can’t, and vice versa? These investigations have led her to focus on representation not just in prose novels but also in media like comics and reality tv. As she carries these experiences with her, she’s grateful to find a professional home in a cultural center that’s organized around building cross-disability and cross-movement solidarity.