The 2026-27 Disability Studies Lecture Series will open Monday, Oct. 19, with a Purdue University professor’s examination of the connections between eugenics, artificial intelligence and disability.

Rua Williams, assistant professor in Purdue’s School of Applied and Creative Computing, will speak beginning at noon. The free, public program will be held on Zoom and streamed at The Cog Neurodiversity Space in the John M. Pfau Library, room PL-2006, for those on campus.

Williams is the author of “Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How We Are Wrong about AI,” published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2025. 

According to the publisher’s website: “This book discusses the influences of eugenics on the AI industry and the impacts of AI opportunism on disabled people. Why are the negative consequences of so-called AI so consistently directed at disabled and racialized people? ‘Disabling Intelligences’ answers this question by detailing the ongoing effects of the eugenicist mindset on our corporate ventures and our interpersonal relationships. It offers an accessible guide to the various meanings, methods, and impacts of AI, and provides a clear framework for classifying, categorizing, evaluating, and critiquing AI projects.”

As principal investigator of the CoLiberation Lab, Williams studies how disabled people imagine and build their own sociotechnical worlds. Projects in the lab examine how technology policy and research practices can affect disabled people’s bodily autonomy and access to meaningful public life. Williams also is a former Just Tech Fellow with the Social Science Research Council.

The lecture series began during the spring 2024 semester with five events highlighting the interdisciplinary field of Disability Studies. Its organizers say the series aims to increase disability literacy and enrich scholarship, creativity and activism through new ideas in disability theory, history, culture and the arts.

The series organizers include CSUSB professors Jess Block Nerren, Jessica Luck, Tiffany Jones, Jonathan Hall, J. Chad Sweeney and Jeremy Murray. Pamela Crosson, a history professor, provides administrative support, while Information Technology consultant Thinh Ly provides technological support. The Cog Neurodiversity Space supports the series this academic year.

Upcoming events for the 2026-27 academic year include:

  • Oct. 27, 10 a.m. – Scot Danforth, “An Independent Man: Ed Roberts and the Fight for Disability Rights,” steaming on Zoom and The Cog Neurodiversity Space for those on campus.
  • Jan. 26, 10 a.m. – Maia Pawooskar on her “Lived Experience with Profound Autism in the Inland Empire,” on Zoom and streaming in The Cog Neurodiversity Space for those on campus.
  • Feb. 10, noon – Jess Starns, “Fostering Neurodivergent Joy and Expression in the Arts,” on Zoom and streaming in The Cog Neurodiversity Space for those on campus.
  • Feb. 24, 1 p.m. – Jessi Block, “Strengths Based Approaches, the Social Model of Disability and Her Lived Experience as a Diagnostician,” on Zoom  and in The Cog Neurodiversity Space for those on campus.

Visit the Disability Studies Lecture academic Series webpage for links to past events and updates on coming talks.