Dr. Erika Katzman

Assistant Professor

Phone: +15195180470
Email: ekatzma2@uwo.ca

In my previous career as a personal care attendant, I learned about disability through experience before formal education. As a neurodivergent occupational therapist and university professor, my teaching and research are informed by first-hand experience navigating structural ableism. My teaching and research share a common aim to create accessible spaces by centring disabled knowledge. Guided by a disability justice framework, I recognize the diversity of lived experience with disability at intersections with other social identities, such as gender, race and class. In the classroom, I support students to understand and interrogate their individual positionality in relation to disability.

My research focuses on the everyday ‘work’ disabled people perform to survive life in inaccessible spaces and in pursuit of rights and justice. This interest began with the observation that coordinating attendant care requires significant time, energy and skill. More recently, I have described the substantial efforts disabled students are required to contribute as they navigate institutional bureaucracy to gain access to post-secondary education. My current research projects are working to translate insights on disability-related work with the aim to improve equitable access in post-secondary education. Through teaching, research and mentorship work I also support health professional education by contributing a critical disability perspective.

Education

PhD, Health Professional Education, Western University

MSc, Occupational Therapy, Western University

BA (Hons), Latin American Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto

Teaching

DS 2201: Rethinking Disability
DS 2221: Challenging Medicalization
DS 3311: Changing Contexts and Practices
DS 3321: Navigating Systems

Research

My research and teaching are informed by critical feminist and critical disability studies perspectives. My research interests include:

The work people do to organize and manage support services.
The material and working conditions of people who do support work.
Support worker education.
Invisible, hidden and relational forms of work.
Expanding conceptions of accessibility.
Critical qualitative research methodology.
Applications for disability studies perspectives in health professional education and practice.
Critical and anti-oppressive pedagogical approaches.

Selected Publications

Katzman, E., Kimpson, S., Mahipaul, S., Zaman, S., & Jarus, T. (2024). Disability and Access Work in Fieldwork Education. In Branzei, O & Zeyen A. (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Disability and Work, Routledge.

Jarus, T., Stephens, L., Edelist, T., Katzman, E., Holmes, C., Kamenetsky, S., Epstein, I., & Zaman, S. (2024). Strategies for increasing accessibility and equity in health and human service educational programs: protocol for a national, mixed methods study. Disabilities, 4, 444-458.

Edelist, T., Zaman, S., Katzman, E., & Jarus, T. (2024). ‘Patient’ or ‘Professional’? Negotiating disability accommodations in fieldwork education. Medical Education, 58(9):1107-1116. doi: 10.1111/medu.

Katzman, E. (2023). From Identity Politics to Internalized Oppression: Navigating Positionality in Disability Research. Revista Mundaú, 13, 156-168.

Katzman, E. (2023). Universal Design for Universal Access. Academic Matters. https://academicmatters.ca/universal-design-for-universal-access/

Katzman, E., Mohler, E., Durocher, E., & Kinsella, E. A. (2021). Occupational Justice in Direct-Funded Attendant Services: Possibilities and constraints. Journal of Occupational Science, 29(4), pp. 586-601. doi: 10.1080/14427591.2021.1942173

Sui, A. & Katzman, E. (2021). Bell, let’s talk about #colonialism, #racism and #ableism. https://theconversation.com/bell-lets-talk-about-colonialism-racism-and-ableism-153823?fbclid=IwAR0RGk4aEqPguV9D7BZjW-SG2iMAsNNr-Aukf_hUWSdydkErvOepx-KSvBk

Katzman, E. (2020). Nothing about ‘Us’ without Whom? (Re)cognizing alliance between disabled people and care workers in Direct-Funded Attendant Services. In A. C Carey, J. M. Ostrove, & T. Fannon (Eds.), Research in Social Sciences and Disability Volume 12: Disability Alliances and Allies: Opportunities and Challenges. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.

Mahipaul, S. & Katzman, E. (2020). What does it mean to be “productive”? A conversation between disability allies. National Centre for Institutional Diversity. https://medium.com/national-center-for-institutional-diversity/what-does-it-mean-to-be-productive-a-conversation-between-disability-allies-e1bf32976ca2

Katzman, E. (2020). Exhausted? Slow down and listen (to disabled wisdom). Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. https://www.federationhss.ca/en/blog/exhausted-slow-down-and-listen-disabled-wisdom

Katzman, E., Kinsella, E. A., & Polzer, J. (2019). 'Everything is Down to the Minute': Clock time, crip time and the relational work of self-managing attendant services. Disability & Society, 35(4), pp. 517-541. doi: 10.1080/09687599.2019.1649126

Katzman, E. (2019). Working Against the Clock: Efficiency, Time and Ethics in Occupational Therapy Practice. Occupational Therapy Now, 21(2), pp. 13-14.

Katzman, E. & LeBlanc, S. (2019). Considering Epistemic Justice in the Quest for Client-Centered Practice. Occupational Therapy Now, 21(2), pp. 9-10.

Katzman, E. & Kinsella, E. A. (2018). ‘It’s Like Having Another Job’: The Invisible Work of Self-Managing Attendant Services. Disability & Society, 33(9), pp. 1436-1459. DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2018.1497949

Katzman, E. (2016). Self-Management and the Government of Disability: Reinforcing Normalcy through the Construction of Able-Disabled Subjectivities. In J. Polzer & E. Power (Eds.) Neoliberal Governance and Health: Duties, Risks and Vulnerabilities. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, pp. 307-329.

Katzman, E. (2015). Embodied Reflexivity: Knowledge and the Body in Professional Practice. In B. Green & N. Hopwood (Eds.) The Body in Professional Practice, Learning and Education. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 157-172.