Georgetown University will launch the Disability Cultural Center (DCC) this fall to support the disability community and culture on campus after a decade of campaigning by students, faculty, staff and alumni.
The campaign for a disability cultural center began in 2012, with Lydia X. Z. Brown (CAS ’15), now an adjunct lecturer in the disability studies program, advocating for it while they were still a student. Students also advocated for a disability studies minor, which the university formally established in 2017.
In December 2020, a group of students — Nesreen Shahrour (SOH ’23), Dominic DeRamo (CAS ’23) and Gwyneth Murphy (SFS ’23, GRD ’25) — revived the campaign. They met with the university’s administration and alumni, and one alumna, Tiffany Yu (MSB ’10), donated $50,000 toward the DCC’s establishment.
The DCC will share a new space on the ground floor of New South Hall with other student-focused centers under the Office of Student Equity & Inclusion (OSEI), including the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, the Women’s Center and the LGBTQ Resource Center. The space is tentatively scheduled to open in November.
Tara Haas (SOH ’25), a student academic assistant at the Disability Cultural Initiative (DCI), an initiative that built the foundation for a disability culture center at Georgetown, said the DCC will provide a space for the community of disabled students on campus.
“There are many disabled students at Georgetown, and the establishment of this space will allow for a space for these students,” Haas wrote to The Hoya. “It is also open to all students — regardless of disability — to gather, learn from one another, and support other Hoyas in a space meant to be inclusive and welcoming.”
The DCI was founded in fall 2022 to advance the goal of a disability cultural center under inaugural associate director Amy Kenny.
Kenny said she has felt proud to be a part of the DCI, now the DCC, alongside other campus partners invested in Georgetown’s disability community.
“Across campus, students and colleagues — inside and outside the classroom — are really excited about the establishment of the Disability Cultural Center and have supported us right from the beginning,” Kenny told The Hoya. “I think because it’s rooted in our Jesuit values, it’s something that so many in the Georgetown community have been supportive and passionate about.”
Although 19% of undergraduates and 12% of post-baccalaureates in the United States reported having a disability, according to 2015-16 data from the National Center for Education Statistics, disability cultural centers are still rare in higher education.
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities established the first disability center in 1991 after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. The second disability cultural center would not be established for another 20 years.
Only 18 higher education institutions currently have disability cultural centers, now including Georgetown, according to the University of Illinois Chicago. Georgetown will also become the first Catholic, Jesuit university with a disability cultural center.
14% of undergraduate students and 10% of post-baccalaureate students at Georgetown currently identify as disabled.
Georgetown students have been some of the leading voices for the disability community on campus and the establishment of a disability cultural center.
Kat Bouker (CAS ’24) was inspired by her disability studies minor coursework to get involved outside the classroom as a student academic assistant at the DCI.
“The community that is fostered within the minor, from the professors to the students, has been one of my favorites at Georgetown,” Bouker wrote to The Hoya. “I wanted to work at the DCC in my last year at Georgetown to continue to be involved in the disability community on campus.”
Chloe Smith (SON ’26), another student academic assistant at the DCI, said the DCC will emphasize the existence of disability as a personal identity that coexists with other identities.
“The establishment of the DCC is important to the Georgetown community because it emphasizes the value of intersectionality,” Smith wrote to The Hoya. “Georgetown emphasizes the need for productivity and a constant ‘grind,’ which can be harmful ideas. At the DCC, we emphasize the idea that rest is not earned; one can be productive, while also caring for oneself wholly.”
Kenny said the DCC’s new space has been designed by and for Georgetown students.
“It will feature a sensory room — complete with a bubble wall, a nano leaf panel, bean bags, a dinosaur panel and interactive light furniture. All of that captivates the imagination and calms the senses,” Kenny said. “We hope that the new space can be a place students can call home.”
Kenny hopes this shared space will build community and support among the different centers.
“I think it really promotes the intersectional approach of all our programming and supports our students and enhances collaboration among all the cultural centers, and it’ll be exciting to have all of the spaces connected in the overall OSEI Center,” Kenny said.
