Among the barriers to workplace access for disabled persons are longstanding religio-cultural attitudes that conceptualize physical and mental disabilities as personal inadequacies, moral failures, or cosmic punishments. These ideological barriers encompass everything from the Protestant work ethic and sin to karma and demerit to qi-endowment and imbalance to taboo and retribution. The 2024–2026 The Comparison Project lecture & dialogue series seeks to identify and analyze some of these attitudinal barriers, in global scope and comparative perspective, focusing especially on attempts at interrogating and overcoming them.
See below for the lectures that have already occurred. Clicking on the name of each lecture will allow you to access a page on which to find a recording of the lecture (and a powerpoint, if one was used).
Fall 2024 Programming
| TITLE | SPEAKER | DATE/TIME/LOCATION |
| “Disability and Religion: A Dialogue of Dissonance in Search of Harmony“ | Dr. Cody Dolinsek, Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Drake University | 09/12/2024, 6:00pm, Sussman Theater |
| “The Jesus Crash” | Dr. Brad Crowell, Professor of Religion, Drake University | 09/26/2024, 6:00pm, Meredith 106 |
| “Is Buddhist Karma Ableist? Challenging Reductionist Assumptions around Causality, Merit, and Virtuous Bodies” | Dr. Bee Scherer, Prof. of Buddhist Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Netherlands) | 10/24/2024, 6:00pm, Sussman Theater |
| “Disability in Local Spaces and Practices of Worship” | Comparison Project Interfaith Fellows, Alex Phillips and Catalina Samaniego | 11/21/2024, 6:00pm, Sussman Theater |