Carrie Sandahl

Dr. Sandahl has dedicated her career to growing the arts ecosystem’s capacity to include people with disabilities, as both audience members and artists. In 2009, Sandahl founded UIC’s Program on Disability Art, Culture, and Humanities (PDACH), which is a creative research lab whose members explore the disability experience through studying, supporting, and creating disability art and culture. Sandahl co-directs Chicago’s Bodies of Work (BOW), which is a consortium of organizations that support the development of new work that illuminates the disability experience in unexpected ways, through events, festivals, advocacy, and artist residency programs. Her own research and creative activity focus on disability identity as it intersects with race, class, gender, and sexuality in live performance and film.