Thomas Abrams
Associate Professor
On sabbatical July 1, 2024 鈥 June 30, 2025
Ph.D. (Sociology, Carleton University)
Sociology
成人大片 University
Sociology of Health and Illness, Disability Studies, Qualitative Health Research, Sociological Theory
I have three empirical research projects underway. The first is an historical study of disability policy and freedom in Canada, the US, and France. The project explores how disabled folks express freedom in different times, places, and (English and French) languages from the 1970s to the present day. Secondly, I am beginning a SSHRC-funded study qualitative study of disabled technology users in their search for and romance. Finally, I continue to work with qualitative researchers in the health and social sciences on three collaborative projects, on disability and quality participation, disability and community-based care in a global context, and in the theoretically informed rehabilitation sciences.
Before coming to Queen鈥檚 in 2018, I was a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow in the department of Social Justice Education, OISE / University of Toronto (2014-2016), and later, a Killam postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie鈥檚 department of Sociology and Social Anthropology (2016-2018). I completed my doctoral work at Carleton鈥檚 Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
I am on sabbatical, but in 2023/2024, I taught:
- SOCY 226 (Central Concepts in Sociological Theory)
- SOCY 425 (Sociology of Health, Illness, and Disability)
- SOCY 936 (Disability Studies, at the graduate level)
I am accepting prospective graduate students, and undergraduate thesis supervisions, for the 2025-2026 academic year, especially those interested in disability studies, sociological theory, and the sociology of health and illness. Please include a CV and draft project statement if you get in touch with me via email.
Please see my for full publication list.
Book:
Abrams, T. (2016). Heidegger and the Politics of Disablement. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Publications:
Zuzunaga Zegarra, D., and Abrams, T., Sick kids versus whom? Childhood disability and charitable campaigns on Instagram. Convergence. Online First: DOI: 10.1177/13548565231211310
Abrams, T and Orsini, M. Waves of Ableism: Affective Arrangements in the Time of COVID-19. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies. 2022;11(3):154-180.
Translation: Abrams, T and Orsini, M., Vagues de capacitisme : Arrangements affectifs au temps de la COVID-19, 2024;13(1):174-203.
Abrams, T., Thille, P., and Gibson, B.E. (2021), 鈥淧utting Affect Theory to the Breathing Test,鈥 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41286-021-00125-0.
Abrams, T., (2021) 鈥淭owards a Social Psychoanalysis of Rehabilitation Practice鈥, Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation. Online:
Abrams, T. and Abbott, D., (2020) 鈥淒isability, Deadly Discourse, and Collectivity Amid COVID-19.鈥 Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 22(1): 168-174.
Abrams, T., and Setchell, J.. 2018. 鈥淟iving with Death in Rehabilitation: A Phenomenological Account.鈥 Human Studies 41 (4): 677鈥95. .
Abrams, T., Setchell, J., Thille, P., Mistry, B. and Gibson, B.E., (Forthcoming) 鈥淎ffect, Intensity, and Moral Assemblage in Rehabilitation Practice.鈥 BioSocieties. DOI: 10.1057/s41292-018-0115-2
Abrams, T. (2017). 鈥淏raidotti, Spinoza, and Disability Studies After the Human鈥. History of the Human Sciences. 30(5), pp. 86-103.
Abrams, T. (2014). 鈥淔lawed by Dasein? Phenomenology, Ethnomethodology, and the Personal Experience of Physiotherapy鈥, Human Studies. 37(3). pp. 431-446.
Abrams, T. (2014). 鈥溾淏oon or Bust?鈥 Heidegger, Disability Aesthetics and the Thalidomide Memorial鈥. Disability & Society. 29(5). pp. 751-762.
Abrams, T. (2014). 鈥淩e-reading Erving Goffman as an Emancipatory Disability Researcher鈥. Disability Studies Quarterly. 34(1). Online: http://www.dsq-sds.org/article/view/3434.