Delayed PhD completion: an autoethnographic account of academic ableism

ABSTRACT

Although equity, diversity, and inclusion have become increasingly important to Canadian higher education institutions, research on experiences of disability in post-secondary institutions is limited. What’s more, the perspectives of disabilities from non-disabled academics far exceed that of those with disabilities. In the existing literature, disabled faculty and graduate students have outlined their experiences with academic ableism and the various barriers it has caused them. Applying a disability rights perspective, I use autoethnography to outline the ways academic ableism has manifested in my PhD program. More specifically, I develop a narrative that considers the relationship(s) that exist between dis/ability and chronic pain on one hand, and the ableist notion of “time to completion” on the other.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Like Koren and Evans-El (2020), I use dis/ability in this article in relation to myself to demonstrate that there is no binary between ability and disability; rather, both disability and ability occur on a spectrum (see also Lorenz, 2017, 2020).

² It also does not consider increases to tuition, which require more students to work while completing their program. Without adequate financial support – and I do not mean student loans and their payback policies – it is likely that more students will be taking longer to finish their programs.

³ This year had the added bonus of a pandemic, which is impacting every single individual in post-secondary education in some way.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Danielle E. Lorenz

Danielle E. Lorenz is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta. She is also an Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal for Disability Studies.