Who We Are

Welcome to the online home of Carleton University’s Disability Research Group. Founded in 2013 by three members of the Disability Studies Committee at Carleton, we are a thoroughly interdisciplinary team from a wide range of scholarly and professional backgrounds. Our group presently includes two engineers, a defence scientist, a social worker, a librarian, an independent living specialist and several historians. Our mission is to investigate the ways in which disability studies, technology and history interrelate, largely through researching and designing virtual exhibits.

The Carleton University Disability Research Group includes the following people:

Co-Primary Investigators:

Adrian D.C. Chan, Professor, Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Assistant Vice-President (Academic), Chair of Advisory Board for READ Initiative

Roy Hanes, Associate Professor, School of Social Work

Dominique Marshall, Professor and Chair, Department of History

Sreeraman Rajan, Chair of EMBS IEEE Ottawa Section, Tier II Canada Research Chair, Department of Systems and Computer Engineering

Dr. Beth A. Robertson, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History, Adjunct Curator, Ingenium: Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation Department of History

Therese, Jennissen, Associate Professor, School of Social Work

MacOdrum Library Liaison: George Duimovich, Associate University Librarian (Collections & Technology) and Head of Systems, MacOdrum Library

Vision Loss Rehabilitation Liaison: Richard Marsolais, Independent Living Specialist, Vision Loss Rehabilitation 

Doctoral Research Assistant: Sandy Barron, Doctoral Candidate, Department of History

Graduate Research Associate: Natalie Amato, MA in History & Digital Humanities, Access, Inclusion, and Disability project

Research Assistants:

Charlotte Dovbniak, Department of History, Access, Inclusion, and Disability project

Hollis Peirce, Department of History, Concentration in Digital Humanities

Chloe Dennis, Department of History

Julia Aguiar, Department of History

IEEE Advisor: Barbara Waruszynski, Chair of SSIT, IEEE Ottawa Chapter

Research Associate and Project Director: Dr. Ryan Patterson, Lecturer in Disability Studies, Ryerson University

Ethics Advisor: Rebecca Rob, ethics and philosophy.

Research Administrator and Technical Advisor: James Rudberg, MA Political Science Department

Transcription Assistant: (Disability Futurity project):  Brittany Clayton, B. Mus, Music department

Past Members:  

Natalie Spagnuolo, Contract Instructor, Pauline Jewett Insititute of Women’s and Gender Studies, Carleton University, Ph.D. (York University), M.A. (Carleton University)

Dorothy-Jane Smith, research Assistant, Doctoral Candidate

Ellen Pjawka, Research Administrator