Katie O’Neill

Hi! I’m Katie. I hail from New Jersey and moved to Chicago in 2017 to begin my MFA in Performance at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I am a proud Mad woman, and my lived experiences with Schizophrenia and Borderline Personality Disorder inform my creative and research practices. As a crip performance artist & choreographer, I collaborate exclusively with disabled participants to create performances that critically engage with topics such as “passing” as non-disabled, sanism, childhood madness, and compulsory able-bodiedness. I would identify myself as a film buff, quintessential Piscean, and giggle machine. I also enjoy meeting new people so don’t be shy!

Why did you choose DHD at UIC?
I was at first drawn to this program because of its tight-knit community and its emphasis on interdisciplinarity. Coming from six years of art school, I was eager to hone in on disability research in an academic program invested in enriching disability education. I believe that my education at DHD will strengthen my artistic practice and better situate it in disability arts/culture. I’m excited for the many years ahead.

What do you want to do with a DHD degree?
Post-DHD, I plan to create a sustainable community center where people diagnosed and undiagnosed may access movement-based forms of communal care, and to be a professor in Disability/Mad Studies somewhere in the world!

Education
MFA, Performance, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019 BFA, Fine Arts, minor in Art History, Moore College of Art & Design, 2017