2025 Critical Disability Studies Seminar Series
About the seminar series
The Melbourne Disability Institute (MDI) and the Diversity and Inclusion team (Office of the Provost) are proud to present a seminar series on Critical Disability Studies.
The Critical Disability Studies Seminar Series aims to build engagement with topics related to disability. Panel discussions are facilitated by global and local thought leaders, researchers and academic subject matter experts, who discuss key concepts and current issues in critical disability studies.
The series aims to engage members of the general public and students and staff at the University with contemporary thinking by people with disability about how far we’ve come on the journey to inclusion, what has worked and what has not, and what’s next.
The Critical Disability Studies Seminar Series is planned to continue in 2026. For information and recordings of past events, please see below. We hope to announce the next event in the series soon so please check back in the new year.
Past events in the series
Seminar 1: The Social Model of Disability: 40 years on
On 1 September, 2025, the Melbourne Disability Institute and the University of Melbourne’s Diversity and Inclusion team hosted a panel of expert speakers with lived experience who responded to the provocation: Is it time to move on from the social model or is there too much at stake?
This session was part of a seminar series designed to build engagement across the University – and the broader community – with key concepts and issues in the critical disability studies space.
Introductory video message:
Professor Tom Shakespeare, disability advocate and activist from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, recorded a special message on the social model of disability.
Panellists:
Scott Avery, a professor of Indigenous disability health and wellbeing in the School of Public Health, University of Technology Sydney. He is an Aboriginal man descendant from the Worimi people and is profoundly deaf. Dr Scott (as he prefers to be known) is a recognised educator, researcher and policy adviser on Indigenous cultural approaches for the inclusion of people with disability. He has extensive experience in conducting community-based research and policy in Indigenous and disability organisations, and is the ‘Professor in Residence’ at the First Peoples Disability Network, an Indigenous Disabled Peoples Organisation.
Lorna Hallahan, an associate professor at Flinders University. She has been a social worker for over 35 years and an advocate for people with disability issues for over 25 years, strategically pushing for change across disability policy, adoption law, and workers' rights across human and health services. In 2019, Associate Professor Lorna Hallahan was appointed National Research Director for the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability to set up the Royal Commission’s research framework. Associate Professor Hallahan has an extensive background in social work practice and leadership.
Chair:
Anne Kavanagh is a professor of disability and health at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne and Director of the Research Alliance in Youth Disability & Mental Health. Her research focuses on health inequalities with specific expertise in disability, gender and employment. Anne leads a research team who use quantitative and qualitative methods to identify policy solutions that address the social and economic disadvantage people with disability experience. Anne regularly contributes to public debate, advocacy and policy development through online media, membership of key committees, and advice to government and other stakeholders.
Seminar 2: The Disability Discrimination Act: Rights, Realities and the Road Ahead
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) was passed into legislation more than 30 years ago, and it’s been 15 years since any major amendments have been made. A lot has changed in the past 15 years – but the DDA has not. The current review of the DDA is a unique opportunity to tell the Australian Government exactly what needs to change so the DDA addresses discrimination and helps drive greater inclusion.
To say there is a lot riding on the outcome of the DDA review is an understatement. Will a refreshed DDA be enough to drive meaningful change? What else needs to be done to advance a rights-based agenda? Where does disability justice fit in?
At this event, held in October 2025, a panel of experts discussed the DDA and what more needs to be done to ensure people with disability enjoy the same rights and opportunities as others in the Australian community.
Introductory video message:
Rosemary Kayess, Disability Discrimination Commissioner
Rosemary holds a Bachelor of Social Science, Bachelor of Laws and an Honorary Doctorate in Law. Before becoming Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Rosemary held senior academic roles with the Faculty of Law and Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). She is a Visiting Professor, Centre for Disability, Law and Policy at the University of Galway. Rosemary was one of the drafters of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). She is currently serving as a member of the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She was awarded the Human Rights Medal in 2019 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights. Rosemary is a member of the NDIA Independent Advisory Council and the Australian Discrimination Law Experts Group. Her former memberships include the Strategic Engagement Reference Group for the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.
Panellists:
Professor Alastair McEwin AM is a strategic and solutions-focused leader, with extensive experience in disability and human rights, and a strong record of service to Australia through senior executive and Commonwealth statutory office holder roles. Profoundly deaf, Alastair has held numerous management and governance roles in the private, government and non‑government sectors. He has served as Australia's Disability Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission, and as a Royal Commissioner with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Other past roles include CEO of People with Disability Australia and Executive Director, Community Legal Centres NSW. He is a Professor of Practice in Disability at the University of NSW, Sydney. He is also a Senior Fellow with the Grattan Institute. His board and advisory roles include the board of The Achieve Foundation and a member of the Australia Post Stakeholder Council.
Natalie Wade, Associate Commissioner, NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, was Founder and Principal Lawyer ofEquality Lawyers, providing legal representation topeople with disabilities and their families.She delivered Australia’s inaugural DisabilityLeadership Oration in 2023, with a brief to “set thenational agenda”.Natalie’s advocacy spans law reform and humanrights campaigns, focusing on the rights of womenand girls with disabilities, migrants with disabilitiesand leading advocacy for a Human Rights Act inSouth Australia. She led the first reform to theNational Disability Insurance Scheme in response tothe NDIS Review, through the NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce. She authored Disability Rights in Real Life, a disability rights law handbook, and represented Australia at the United Nations Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (16th session). In recognition of her contributions, Natalie was named Australian Young Lawyer of the Year in 2016, and more recently was awarded the 2024 Dennis Mutton Leadership Award.
Chair:
Associate Professor Anna Arstein-Kerslake is the Director of the Disability Inclusive Law and Policy Hub at Melbourne Law School. She is an internationally recognised legal academic in the fields of human rights, disability rights, and gender justice. Anna has published widely in these areas, including Restoring Voice to People (Cambridge University Press 2017) and Legal Capacity and Gender (Springer 2020). Anna has worked closely with United Nations bodies such as UN Women and the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). She was a drafter of the first UN General Comment on the Right to Equality Before the Law, adopted by the UN CRPD Committee in 2014. Anna has also consulted with governments and other bodies including the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Kingdom Ministry of Justice, Irish Ministry of Justice, Amnesty Ireland, Interights, and Mental Disability Advocacy Center. She is an Establishment Committee Member of the Melbourne Disability Institute (MDI).