This seminar attempts to further examine Xine Yao’s theory of Disaffection, that axis on the politics of sentimentalism and produces the forms of ‘unfeeling’. These forms entail resistance to affectability, standardized sympathy, universal recognition and strategic marginalization. Although Yao’s focal point is the racial paradigm of White supremacy and Black resistance, the concept of disaffection as a tactic of resistance can be explored through the way abilities of individuals are shaped.

This seminar proposes bringing forward a new spectrum of research on the abilities of individuals and communities while surviving in environments bent on injustice, disparity, disorientation etc. Literature has always portrayed individuals’ reaction to certain events or environments, whether it be resistance, protest, chaos or silence but somewhere deep lies the certainty that human abilities are also altered in the process of the reaction. Scholarly papers engaging with the agency of ability (of individuals and communities) become disaffected due to geo-political injustice, necessity deprivation, ecological catastrophe, alienation (familial, social, cultural and religious), hierarchal exploitation.