Reading from the Margins: A Feminist and Intersectional Exploration of Disability in the Global South

Despite the significant prevalence of disability globally –estimated at around 16 per cent of the world’s population– and particularly in the Global South, where 80 per cent of the disabled population is located, empirical and theoretical disability research efforts in this region remain scarce, especially those that include the voices and experiences of disabled people. This doctoral research aims to address this research gap and contribute to the understanding, conceptualization, and theorization of disability in the Global South from a feminist and intersectional perspective, using Nepal as a case study. To this end, this research seeks to achieve three specific objectives: Firstly, to explore how disability intersects with gender and other relevant social categories in the Nepali context – such as ethnicity, caste, or socioeconomic status– by empirically examining the specific challenges faced by women with disability in exercising their rights and participating in economic, social, and political life. Secondly, to use the narratives and lived experiences of Nepali women with disability as a basis for the development of situated theories of disability in the Global South, enriching existing frameworks with local knowledge. Finally, to generate theoretical and methodological insights that contribute to the field of feminist disability studies and inform future research endeavors in Nepal and other Global South contexts. This research will use feminist standpoint theory and intersectionality theory as overarching theoretical frameworks. Feminist standpoint theory prioritizes situated knowledge to destabilize dominant modes of theoretical production and allows for the inclusion of voices and narratives historically excluded from knowledge production, such as women with disability. Intersectionality theory will aid in unravelling the complex entanglement of disability with gender and other social locations, thus providing a nuanced understanding of the multidimensional disability experience and favoring its non-essentializing theorization. Through qualitative empirical research –including in-depth interviews with women with disability in Nepal– this research aims to collect valuable data that will inform theoretical insights and contribute to advancing feminist disability research in the Global South. The project’s significance lies in its potential to address the gap in disability research in Nepal, contribute to the development of feminist disability studies in the region, and provide methodological insights applicable to interdisciplinary fields such as gender and disability studies. By amplifying the voices of disabled women and grounding theoretical formulations on their lived experiences, this research aims to foster a situated understanding of disability in the Global South, ultimately advocating for social change and policy interventions that prioritize and secure the rights and well-being of disabled people.

Keywords

Disability; Global South; Feminist Disability Studies; Intersectionality