The theme of this conference was: Disrupting Music Education: Disability as “an ingenious way to live.” DSandME23 took place from April 27, 2023, through April 29, 2023.
The 3rd Biennial International Disability Studies and Music Education Symposium (DSandME23) explored how disability and lived experiences of disabled persons/persons with disabilities provide opportunities to productively disrupt music pedagogy (e.g., Shakespeare, 2014). Disruption functions as a way to become conscious of ableism within structures and practices in music education (Rathgeber & Bell, forthcoming). As Neil Marcus reminds us, disability both necessitates creativity, and is itself a site of creativity (Marcus, 1993; Keifer-Boyd, 2017). Disruption, then, can be an invitation to reconsider, dream, and transform practices, environments, and relationships through disability-centered frameworks (Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2018; Sandahl, 2018).
I presented the adaptive instruments workshops on Friday, April 28, 2023.