Professor

Karen Yoshida

Physical Therapy

BPHE, BSc PT, MSc, PhD

Location
Rehabilitation Sciences Building
Address
500 University Avenue, Floor 8, Lab 80, Toronto, Ontario Canada M5G 1V7
Research Interests
Social and Cognitive Rehabilitation Sciences, Critical Disability Studies Scholarship, Oral Histories, Disability Leadership and Activism, Equitable Access to Healthcare for Disabled Women, Embodiment, Arts-Based Research
Accepting
Postdoc, Contact Faculty Member for more information

Dr. Yoshida received her Ph.D. in Community Health (Sociology of Health /Disability) in 1991 at the University of Toronto.  She is a Critical Disability Studies scholar, ally and non-disabled activist, who has worked in equitable teaching and research partnerships with disabled communities for the past 20+ years. She initiated and leads an innovative Critical Disability Studies and health and wellness/diversity component, with the disability rights communities in Toronto, in the Department of Physical Therapy since 1993. 

Her research approach is community-based, participatory, and she promotes the agency and expertise of disabled people through their roles as investigators on research community partnerships grants..  Her current research and creative professional activities focuses on Activist Disability Oral History, arts-based research and dissemination, disability leadership, embodiment and representation, women living with disabilities and their access to health services.  

She disseminates her work in traditional scholarly publications. However, Dr. Yoshida believes that research output should be accessible to the public. She has produced non-traditional knowledge products in the form of creative professional activities. For example, Dr. Yoshida has led the development of a Disability Oral History Toolkit for use by the community. 


Research Synopsis

My academic and community colleagues and I focus on advancing Critical Disability Studies  scholarship (CDS) and social change in four distinct but related areas: 1) academic- community research partnerships in the areas of CDS history, leadership and activism, disabled women’s access to health services  and alternate models of rehabilitation services and; 2) bringing CDS scholarship into rehabilitation; 3) developing and disseminating creative knowledge products to the academic and lay public and 4) promoting CDS scholars within and outside of the field.


Recent Publications

Articles or arts-based products that represent this work.(*) denotes student of Dr. Yoshida; # person with disability

  1. *Shanouda, F. and Yoshida, K.K. Playing with Normalcy: a disability material culture analysis. Review of Disability Studies: an International Journal.  Accepted with revisions- resubmitted Jan 2019 (SRA).
  2. *Quinn, N. and Yoshida, K.K. More than Sport: Representations of Ability and Gender by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) of the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies. Vol. 5(4):103-109 Dec. 2016. To link to this article: http://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/article/view/316/536, (SRA).
  3. Yoshida, K.K. *Shanouda, F. A Culture of silence: Modes of objectification and the silencing of disabled bodies, Disability and Society 2015. Vol. 30(3): 432-444.
  4. Yoshida, K.K.  #Self, H., Renwick, R.R., Forma, L., #King. AJ., Fell, L. Values in Action: A Consumer –based Practice Model of Rehabilitation, Disability and Rehabilitation,  2014 Nov 27: 1-9.
  5. “Out From Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember” (OFUDH)–Curatorial Team – Frazee, C., Church, K., and Pantich, M. Contributing Artists Karen Yoshida and Audrey King – The “Breathing” Installation. Invited Exhibitions at the following venues: 1) Abilities Arts Festival- Toronto October 2007, 2) Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, April –July 2008 and 3) Paraolympic Games – Disability Arts and Culture Festival – Vancouver BC. March 5- 21, 2010. Permanent Exhibit Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg Manitoba Fall 2014.

Honours and Awards

Name:
Description:
  • Fellow in Columbia University’s Summer Institute on Oral History (Topic: Narrating the Body: Oral History, Narrative and Embodied Performance) [in 2018]
  • CIHR Career Refocusing Award in Disability, Gender and Health [between 2004-2006]
  • Ontario Ministry of Health Career Scientist in Disability and Rehabilitation [between 1992- 2003]