Joanne D. Woiak, PhD

Associate Teaching Professor, Disability Studies & Adjunct Faculty, Department of Bioethics & Humanities, School of Medicine

Home Department: Disability Studies

Affiliated Departments: Law, Societies & Justice, UW Medicine

• Ph.D., History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto

My research interests encompass the social justice implications of knowledge about genetics, reproduction, and health in the modern era. I focus on disability in American and British history and culture, including the history of sterilization and constructions of mental disability in Washington, the rhetorical uses of “eugenics” in public discourses, reading science fiction through the lens of disability studies, and disability pedagogy. Currently I'm part of a state-funded project to recover and preserve historical documents and artifacts from Lakeland Village, a Washington state disability institution. I developed the 2009 symposium Eugenics and Disability: History and Legacy in Washington, the lecture series Unspeakable: Disability History, Identity, and Rights, and the Pacific & Western Disability Studies Consortium symposium. I am a member and past president of the Society for Disability Studies, and a member of the Disability History Association.