https://www.dailycal.org/2018/03/15/first-transitions

 

https://www.dailycal.org/2018/03/15/first-transitions

 

https://www.dailycal.org/2018/03/15/first-transitions

Last Class at Berkeley

This day 2 years ago.  

OMG. My very last undergrad class at Berkeley. 

Berkeley Haas Scholars at work. 

RadMad Shoutout.

 A shoutout from my old lab, the amazing makerspace UC Berkeley Rad Mad Disability Lab

Let’s give a round of applause to our alumni Hari!! Hari, previously our lead in Team Propaganda, has recently been awarded the 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship.
The RadMad Lab is proud of you!!

 

Memories

This memory popped up in my feed today. 

This was my first semester at The Daily Californian, when I wrote a weekly column with editors Chantelle and Dohee. 

Spring 2024 DCC Art Exhibition

Disability Cultural Center at UC Berkeley. 

I had 2 poems with accompanying art exhibited 

Kinda cool!!

I'm going to miss this, but if you are in Berkeley that time, do give it a peek. 

Spring 2024 DCC Art Exhibition! The Art Panelist Committee selected your art to be displayed in the art gallery from the first week of March to the second week of May 2024. Congratulations on being accepted into the art exhibition!

the Art Exhibition Opening is March 7th from 5 pm to 7 pm in the Disability Cultural Community Center in the Hearst Field Annex (HFA) D-25 Berkeley CA 94720.

 

Campus Change Maker

This post from my UC Berkeley days, showed up at the top of my social media today, along with some new comments.

==========
An honor for sure to be called campus change maker.
in my email inbox today from DSP ListServ

======
Bringing Disability Awareness & Visibility to Sproul Plaza!
Visit our table on Sproul Plaza today from 9 to noon to connect with student groups and campus resources including: The Disabled Students Commission, Berkeley Disabled Students Group (BDS), Spectrum at Cal, OCD at Cal, CAPS, RSF, DSP, and the DCC!

As part of Disability Awareness Month celebrations, we are uplifting the work and stories of a series of Change Makers from the Disability Community. This week, we are highlighting the contributions of Hari Srinivasan. Undergraduate student, instructor of the Autism DeCal, and journalist at the Daily Cal.

Image Description: A photo of Hari standing on a bridge on UC Berkeley's campus. Text reads: Hari Srinivasan. Undergraduate student and instructor. There is a quote from Hari next to it that reads, "I want you to think of disability as possibility too. Only when you think of possibility can the door of opportunity be opened."

• Way to go Hari! You make a difference!
• There is no “Dis” in ability. Well done , keep up the amazing work!
• You earned it, Hari. I love our course together, and I look forward to your work in the future. Get after it!
• #harirocks
• Hari...You are the best!
• Well deserved, Hari! You are doing great things in the world.
• Love it.

\

https://www.dailycal.org/2018/03/15/first-transitions

In the thick

 Event hosted by Spectrum at Cal during my undergrad years. 

Panel on Autism Research

Now I'm in the thick of doing Autism Research. How about that!!

And this is the area I will be looking at https://youtu.be/TG67gYXyz1o

Back at the DeCal

It was lovely to be back as guest speaker at the UC Berkeley Autism Decal Class, a class that I led when I was at Berkeley. I can't believe this will be my 3rd time as guest speaker (or that I'm in 2nd year of grad school). I sure miss that class and the amazing opportunity it provided for me to not just contribute but also to learn and grown.

This time spoke about what my advocacy journey had looked looked like as I want others to come up with their own unique journeys and find ways to contribute, and also about my research in both grad and undergrad. 

Sins Invalid

Limitations of Traditional Disability Justice/ Disability Rights Movement

• Ignores Intersectionality
• Race, Religion, Gender, SES, Immigration Status, Cultural Values
• White-male-hetrosexual-Centric. White-privilege centric
• (eg: Parallels in Psychology Research which is WEIRD-centric: Western Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic Countries)
• Power/Status-Centric
• Centered around people who have achieved status through legal framework,
• Why: Rights have to be won by litigation. So unequal access to rights across the board. You don’t sue, you lose

• Mobility-Impairment Centric
• Access needs as beyond architectural barriers. 

What are we looking for in a Disability Justice Framework

• All mind-bodies unique and essential
• All mind-bodies have strengths + needs that must be met
• All mind-bodies are Powerful, despite complexities
• Mind-Bodies are confined by & cannot be separated from our intersectionalities.

Key concepts

• Connectedness
• Interdependence
• Relational & transformative framework.

Sins Invalid. 10 Principles of Disability Justice

1. Intersectionality
2. Leadership of the Most Impacted
3. Anti-capitalist Politic
4. Commitment to Cross-movement organizing
5. Reorganizing wholeness
6. Sustainability
7. Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity
8. Interdependence
9. Collective Access
10. Collective Liberation

1. Intersectionality

Disability is another layer of intersectionality we experience
Impacted by White Privilege,/ Colonial legacy

Intersectionality is not about who is suffering the most but about who is impacted in which areas. 

• Within our own intersectionality we experience privilege in some areas and oppression in others; varying across context.

Intersectionality impacts access to spaces/ community/ resources /inclusion and funding.

Me -->  Autistic + ADHD + other medical/sensory/mood/communication issues + South-Indian descent + Tamil Hindu Iyengar Brahmin + vegetarian + multilingual etc.

What Can be Done

• Recognize Disability is not a vacuum.
• Collaborate on overlapping issues
• What else?

2. Leadership of the Most Impacted

• System impacts are not equal.
• People most hurt by the system often have a better understanding of what all is wrong with that system.

What Can be Done

• Prioritize the more marginalized voices
• Be aware of hierarchies within disability
• Eg: an unspoken hierarchy means unequal access
• What else?

3. Anti-capitalist Politic

• Disabled Mind-Body is anti-capitalist
• Why:
• Capitalism = Survival of Fittest
• Competition towards wealth accumulation, land acquisition for the ruling class.
• Therefore:
• By definition the “non-normative” mind-body of disabled people are invalidated.

What can be done

• Rethink Worth of an individual beyond as beyond productivity. Eg: some may not be able to “contribute” in the traditional sense due the more significant disability and THAT’s OK!!
• Work on issues that are exacerbated by capitalism Eg: homeless disabled, health care, poverty
• Access at times has a “price tag” in capitalist society- so either need to be creative with solutions or organize funding sources.
• What else?

4. Commitment to Cross-movement organizing

• A relational and transformation framework of Disability Justice means we need to think about disability and ableism in many different ways
• Learn from other movements
• Paraphrasing what Stuart James, Director of CIL said during class visit to Ed Roberts Campus, Spring 2018 Sem.
• “We need to learn from the Gay Rights movement which in just 30 years has become mainstream. “

What can be done?

• Disability does not exist in vacuum
• You can reach out for allies in unlikely places.
• Eg: Reproductive justice is Disability justice. , Climate Justice is Disability Justice
• Mixed movement organizing (“nurturing old ways & inventing new ways)
• What else?

5. Reorganizing wholeness

• Disabled people are whole people
• Everyone is a living breathing thinking individual with emotions, sensations, perceptions and quirks.

What can we do

• Reject capitalist notion of worth of an individual as tied to his perceived “productivity”
• Recognize & support: “We all struggle together” imperfectly
• What else?

6. Sustainability

• Transformation needs to be deep, longlasting and sustained.
• But Transformation does not happen overnight.
• Disabled mind-body needs to be paced according to the “spoons” available to us.
• “Rest is resistance, Survival is resistance, Anything else is extra”

What can we do?

• Group effort, flexible schedules/ deadlines
• Avoid Burnout
• What else?

7. Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity

• There can be NO Disability Justice, unless there is Disability Justice for all.
• “Honor insights of all community members”
• “We are trying to break down barriers”

What Can be Done

• Means working together. Collaboration
• Connections that cross living, advocacy and education.
• Eg: autism + deaf have communication access as a common issue.
• What else?

8. Interdependence

• State Solutions → they control our lives
• Interdependence → we control our lives & help each other. (Our interdependence with other humans & nature was already part of our unconscious before western colonization.)

What Can be Done

• Check ins
• How to ask for help & communicate needs
• Share spoons
• What else?

9. Collective Access

• Access Needs are not shameful / not a favor
• Access Needs are not fixed - depend on context and environment.
• We can share responsibility for our access needs.
• Needs community, shared responsibility and creative out-of-the-box nuances.

What Can be Done

• Pool resources
• What else?

10. Collective Liberation

• Disability justice is a vision.
• Moving together is what gets us to liberation
• We are all survivors. “Listen to the Canaries”
• “We honor the longstanding legacies of resilience & resistance” for all non-conforming mind-bodies.

What can we do

• Recognize: “moving together does not mean we move in the same way;” we are still valued in any way we move.
• What else?

Berkeley News

UC Berkeley Chancellor Christ retires next year. 

Can't help but remember that had handed me my University Medal finalist award on stage at convocation along with a lovely message. I think she became chancellor around the time I joined Cal. 

https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/06/15/chancellor-carol-christ-announces-2024-retirement-plans-for-ambitious-year/

Cal Alum Association Member

Go Bears!!

 

Media Mention

Today someone reposted a FB comment of mine along with a link to link to one of my columns in the Daily Cal . http://www.dailycal.org/2018/04/19/o-body-where-art-thou/


"I ran the explanations by my neuroscience Prof at Cal (David Presti) to make sure there were no factual errors. He thought I had correctly pulled in a lot of theories on the neuroscience of autism along with a wealth of data and analysis from my experiences and told a compelling story. In final article, had to cut out a couple more concepts due to word limit."

Quite serendipitous that this article was written during an Intro to Neuroscience elective with Prof David Presti (this course was for all majors so nothing like the extra-tough Cell Neuroscience this sem). At that time I was happy I got to go to college at all and soaking it all in. Who knew that I would end up even making it to grad school (today is end of year 1) and getting to do contribute to research in that area too!! Deep gratitude to all who supported me this last year.

Haas Scholars Cohort

 This day last year. Hanging with my Haas Scholars Cohort @UC Berkeleu

Capturing Joy

 This time in Jan 2022

With my Haas Scholars Cohort on the UC Berkeley Campus. 

We were back to in-person meetings though fully masked indoors. 

Kevin, 2nd from Left, just got into Columbia Law. 

Huge Congrats Kevin! You will surely change the world with your work on prison reform. 

Cal Football

Looking back to to this day

From 3 years back - Basketball Game at Haas Stadium, UC Berkeley

Not gone to any games at new school, but hope to in 2023. 

 

A book of Awe

 

Finally..... my copy arrived. Amazon lost my original order, this is a 2nd one. 

Dacher's work is the definitive research on awe. 

And my undergrad research was on awe. 

Looking forward to reading. 

Becoming a Reference

As a student you are used to asking your professors for references. 

So it is a surprise, a turnabout when you are asked to be a reference. 

The first time was as a junior in undergrad, where I taught a class on autism. One of the students from my autism class at Berkeley for a community position. 

Jan 5: Today I got asked again - from a RA I supervised during my undergrad research.  

Update: Jan 26: Glad to report she got the teaching position she applied for.