Masterclass: Novel Sociological Methods and Practices of Engagement across Disability Communities

Public Lecture hosted by the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Health Equity and Community Wellbeing.

Join us for an interactive masterclass and dialogue inspired by the Frontiers in Sociology special issue and eBook “Novel Sociological Methods and Practices of Engagement across Disability Communities” (in Frontiers of Sociology, 2025) featuring panelists Aimee Sinclair, Luke Beesley, and Danielle Landry. The discussion will be moderated by Marina Morrow, Director of the Mad Studies Hub at York University. This event is free of charge and open to the public.

How do researchers do Mad studies? Or do Disability studies? How can graduate students and emerging scholars apply cripped and community-based methods that challenge conventional research practices?
This hybrid event brings together contributors Aimee Sinclair, Luke Beesley, and Danielle Landry for a dynamic conversation about doing research with, not on, communities. Each speaker will share a short reflection on their methodological approach before opening into a longer, student-driven Q&A and discussion.

At this launch event, the authors will present and discuss their own contributions, offering reflections on what their methods reveal about the politics, practices, and possibilities of disability and mad research:

- Aimee Sinclair – “Who decides on time? Mad Time as a disruptor of normative research politics and practices” — on how temporality, pacing, and rhythm can unsettle research conventions and reframe accessible, relational inquiry.

- Luke Beesley – “‘[T]he most precise and thorough understanding of the situation we are struggling to change’: re-capturing emancipatory disability research” — on reclaiming the radical roots of disability research to advance emancipatory and justice-oriented scholarship.

- Danielle Landry – “A Fight Worth Remembering: Sharing archival materials in interviews to support recall of ex-mental patient activism” — on how archival prompts can deepen memory work and support participant co-construction of activist histories.

Together, these presentations will open up a lively dialogue about how centring disability as a methodological lens disrupts normative systems, builds alliances across diverse communities, and fosters more equitable forms of global knowledge production.