Research

Abstract Geometric Texture

Disability as Research Method

The cultural circuits of disability are formed through mechanisms of mutual support, caregiving and resource sharing, and, intersect and overlap with the routes of other communities. In this way, disability knowledge understands globalization as a product of collective action, horizontal social networks, and political struggle rather than simply as a sum of riches gained and territories conquered.  In my current research project, titled Criptic Inquiry and the Cultural Circuits of Disability, I study the production of disability knowledge in a global context. 
 
Each chapter reflects upon my experiences as a blind scholar and the central role disability plays throughout the analytic process. Disability-informed inquiry is coined here cryptic and its noticeably codified processes are understood as a response to my immediate needs, as an assurance of accessibility and mode of self-support. Criptic Inquiry is a word play that highlights the nuances required for disabled research to take place while expanding the use of the term Crip as developed in the work of Robert McRuer and Alison Kafer, among others. Criptic Inquiry and the Cultural Circuits of Disability argues that disabled-informed research and the production of disability knowledge are radical acts that connect Disability culture to the traditions of other historically marginalized communities across the globe.

Disabled, Disability Signs, Icons are Visual Presentation. 3D Render Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities Stock Photo

Inclusive Program Design

The Institute for Inclusive Program Design is an interactive four-week workshop for faculty and staff that will help you build practical knowledge around the application of inclusive and universal design best practices and learn how to ensure that your student-facing work meets the most current accessibility guidelines. It combines two, in-person , and two zoom-based meetings with approximately two hours a week of asynchronous work on our fully designed Canvas platform. Participants may consider completing a syllabus, designing an assessment point, rewriting or revising current student programing or drafting upcoming events. Group work and peer review activities will support knowledge sharing across faculty and staff and support a greater understanding of how we work to support students’ needs on campus.

white and orange wooden fence beside black door

EDI Research and Leadership  

Discrimination results in barriers that keep equity-deserving communities from accessing opportunities. 

As a member of the team at Toronto Metropolitan University's Diversity Institute, I co-authored a number of studies that explore peoples experiences with discrimination in the workplace in Canada drawing on data from the Survey of Employment and Skills conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research, in partnership with the Future Skills Centre.  

There are no simple solutions to complex problems and addressing discrimination in the workplace requires a multilayered strategy. Organizations do not exist in a vacuum but are shaped by broader societal forces. We must name the problem and collect disaggregated data to understand the impact of systemic discrimination on individuals from equity-deserving groups across sectors: education, employment, health, the justice system and more. Strong legislation is the foundation and must be supported with strong implementation and enforcement.

Employers need to have clear and formal commitments to preventing discrimination in all its forms and to ensure they have strong and effective equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategies that are well understood and implemented. Tone from the top is critical to signal that discrimination will not be tolerated. Benchmarking is critical—what gets measured gets done—and organizations need to track not only the composition of their workforce and leadership, but also the application, selections and promotion processes. Employee engagement surveys are a good way to track perceptions of discrimination and inclusion to help drive strategies. And tracking complaints and separations from the company also offer important signs regarding what is working and what is not. Organizations also have a profound impact on the broader environment and commitment to considering EDI in product and service design, marketing and support can influence the experiences of discrimination more broadly as can investment in communities.

Recent Publications

  • Edwards, Matthew. 2017. Queer Argentina: Movements Towards the Closet in a Global Time. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. 2017.. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Through insightful, high-paced commentary this book directs attention south, towards Argentina. Current events, political debates, and the cultural production of artists, authors and public figures, including César Aira, María Moreno, Naty Menstrual and Copi, among others, provide case studies where heterosexual social models are rejected and, in their place, queer frameworks become the preferred model for living differently. Queer Argentina traces the movements of today’s marginalized communities as they pass through and choose to remain within the closet: a space that is emblematic of collective struggles in silence and community formation outside the (hetero)norm.

  • Edwards, Matthew, ed. In Press. “Towards Dissent: Accessing Political Struggle Across the Americas. Ed. Matthew Edwards. University of Toronto Press, Toronto. (In Production)”. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

    Global circuits and local pathways are shaped by the needs of our bodies—both as individuals and as societies—and reflect our access to resources, networks, ideas, and knowledge. Toward Dissent highlights the paths forged through resistance and defiance. It examines how differences travel across regions through small editions, sound bites, news clippings, and translations; how research on revolution transforms our methodologies, encouraging participatory and subjective approaches; and how access to resources, communities, and ideas shapes the ways we understand, write about, and document sociopolitical struggles across the Americas.

    In this book, Matthew J. Edwards combines traditional essays with shorter, more experimental texts such as manifestos, personal vignettes, interviews, and chronicles. Together, these pieces explore the circulation of ideas, objects, and cultural artifacts across the Americas, showing that while movement is essential for resisting oppression and enacting political change, our access to archives, information, and social networks determines how we engage with communities, and experiences, and how we document and understand political struggles.

    This volume situates critical inquiry alongside ideological affinity and activism, arguing that political movements not only initiate social change but impact and influence the observations and critical processes that work to communicate their outcomes.