Akemi Nishida, PhD
Associate Professor
Gender and Women's Studies; Disability Studies
Pronouns: she/her/hers
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About
Akemi Nishida uses research, education, and activism to investigate the ways in which ableism and saneism are exercised in relation to racism, sexism, and other forms of social injustices. She also uses such methods to work towards cross-community solidarity for the liberation and celebration of community power. In her research and teaching, Nishida brings together disability studies, critical race theories, transnational feminist studies, and immigration studies, among others. Prior to joining The Disability and Human Development and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at University of Illinois at Chicago as an assistant professor, Nishida earned her PhD in Critical Social Psychology from the City University of New York. She has investigated the aforementioned theses in the context of the neoliberal political economy, using cases from the U.S. public health care system, higher education, and the activist community.
In her current research, she traces the development of the U.S. neoliberal public health-care assemblage and its effects on the everyday lives of lower- or no-income disabled people and mostly lower-income immigrant and non-immigrant women of color who are situatedas care recipients and/or paid providers. Also in the research, she looks into the development of affective relationality between those people as they form their own interdependent caring bond as a way to resist the exploitative healthcare structure. Nishida’s research has been funded by the American Association of University Women and The Linda Powell Pruitt Dissertation Scholarship among others. Her work has been published in Multicultural Perspectives,Disability Studies Quarterly, and Occupy! n+1. Her commitment for disability and other social justices continues outside of academia as she works as a member of a national organization, The Disability Justice Collective.
Education
PhD, Critical Social Psychology - City University of New York