Amelia-Marie Altstadt

Amelia-Marie Altstadt (they/she) is a PhD Student in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago and a Pipeline to An Inclusive Faculty Fellow originally from San Diego, California (Kumeyaay land). They are the 2023-2024 Chicago Coalition for Autistic and Neurodivergent Students (CANS) Coordinator and support projects by Bodies of Work at UIC. In their work, they focus on disability culture and the arts, especially as these subjects relate to children of disabled adults, or CoDisA, and first-generation college students. They were the Association of College Personnel Administrators (ACPA) Coalition for Disability’s recipient for the Disability Leadership Award in 2022. As a student affairs professional at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln they served low-income, first-generation students primarily of Latinx, Black, and Indigenous backgrounds from both rural and urban settings and subsequently served Honors scholars through primarily advising, teaching, and organizing experiential learning opportunities. They, additionally, are a proud hermana of Sigma Omega Nu (ΣΩΝ) Latina Interest Sorority, Incorporated. To keep up to date on Amelia-Marie, find them on social media @ameliamariewoo, and their website www.ameliamariewoo.com.

Why did you choose DHD at UIC?
I chose DHD at UIC because it is the only PhD program in Disability Studies in the United States of America at this time. Although I did also apply to higher education specific PhD programs, this program provides the depth of knowledge I need surrounding disability to reach my goals. The professors here are fantastic, and my advisor Dr. Carrie Sandahl actively supports and challenges my interests and goals. Being a Pipeline to an Inclusive Faculty Fellow also made my education at UIC attainable financially, while providing me with the professional development to achieve my goal of becoming a professor.

What do you want to do with a DHD degree?
I would like to combine my dedication to higher education as a field of study, the arts, and disability culture together as a professor of higher education in the future. I would additionally love to consult for universities and theatres on disability culture and accessibility, as well as tour to speak on my research interests. My wildest dreams include starting or supporting a new PhD in Disability Studies program at a university within the United States of America.

Research Interests
My research interests include children of disabled adults (CoDisA), disability culture, student identity development, first-generation college students, multiracial studies, autoethnography as methodology, and ethnodrama.

Selected Presentations
Altstadt, A.-M. (2023, May 2). Beyond referrals to SSD: Advising and supporting disabled students [Conference presentation]. National Academic Advising Association, Region 6 Conference, Lincoln, NE, United States. Sasso, P., & Altstadt, A.-M. (2022, November 18) The academic oratory tax paid by speech disfluent undergraduate students [Paper session]. Association for the Study of Higher Education, Las Vegas, NV, United States. Altstadt, A.-M., & Martinez, B. Z. (2022, February 19). Finding community through a Latina interest sorority [Conference presentation]. Black and Latinx Summit, Champaign, IL, United States.

Selected Publications
Light, A., Altstadt, A.-M., Sanchez-Txabarri, O., Bernstein, S., & McMahon, P.C. (2023, April 28). College-powered afterschool service-learning: The impact on college students. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 27(1). https://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/ jheoe/article/view/2895 Sasso, P. A., Jeffers, A., Altstadt, A.-M., Bullington, K., & Enciso,
M. (2023, April 7). Personal “reservations”: Revealing the selective invisibility in multiracial Native American students. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 1–14. https://
doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2023.2176768 Altstadt, A.-M. (2021). Spaces and Societal Interactions: Foundations of the Critical Disabled Cultural Lens of a Child of Disabled Adults [University of Nebraska-Lincoln]. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsedaddiss/339/

Awards and Honors
ACPA Faculty Racial Justice and Decolonization Institute, Scholarship Awardee, 2023; Pipeline to an Inclusive Faculty Fellowship Recipient, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2023;Best Session Award, Academic Advising Association Conference, 2022; Disability Leadership Award, Association of College Personnel Administrators’ Coalition for Disability, 2022; Honorary Member of Mu Chapter of Sigma Omega Nu, Latina Interest Sorority Incorporated at SSU, for graduating with a 3.5 GPA, Spring 2017

Education
MA, Educational Administration with a specialization in Student Affairs Administration, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2021; BA in Liberal Studies (Hutchins), Sonoma State University, 2017.