About Fiona Kumari Campbell
Fiona Kumari Campbell is Associate Professor in Law at Griffith Law School, Griffith University, Australia, and Adjunct Professor in Disability Studies, Department of Disability Studies, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama, Sri Lanka. Campbell is the author of Contours of Ableism (2009). Her work has appeared in Rethinking Anti-Discriminatory and Anti-Oppressive Theories for Social Work Practice, edited by C. Cocker and T. Hafford (2014); Generation Next: Becoming Socially Enterprising, edited by S. Chamberlain, K. Foxwell-Norton, and H. Anderson (2014); and South Asia and Disability Studies: Redefining Boundaries and Extending Horizons, edited by S. Rao and M. Kalyanpuram (2014).
Disability studies scholars recognize that the term “ability” shapes our understanding of what it means to have a livable life. Although it is often treated as the antithesis of “disability,” ability has been used as a conceptual sledgehammer to determine and shape social status and caste on both an individual and a collective level. In effect, “ability” employs a judgment that establishes standards of body and mind that are actionable in the present or in projected futures.