The Doyle Engaging Difference Program - Georgetown University

This event featured a conversation with Judith (Judy) Heumann, an internationally recognized leader in the disability rights community. A wheelchair user since childhood, Judy took on a lifelong advocacy role in collaboration with other disabled people due to continuous discrimination. The 2020 documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, tells the story of how her fierce disability community came together, fought for change, and transformed the world as we know it. The documentary traces the history of the group that Judy Heumann collaborated with, first as youth in a summer camp for disabled children in upstate New York, and then in Berkeley, California, as young adults advocating for disability rights.

Jointly organized by two Doyle Seminars—Theodora Danylevich’s Disability Narratives (ENGL 445) and Sky Sitney’s Documentary Film: History and Theory (FMST 355)—this was a unique, student-led conversation. Shaped by our seminar topics, participants considered questions about the impact and importance of disability narratives and explored questions around the ethical demands of documentary filmmaking. 

This event was co-sponsored by Georgetown University's Doyle Engaging Difference Program; the Film and Media Studies Program; the Disability Studies Program; the Department of English; the Women’s and Gender Studies Program; and the Gender⁺Justice Initiative.