Odile Carroll

My pronouns are she/her and I am a first year PhD student in Disability Studies at UIC, and originally from the DC area. I moved to Chicago from Vermont, where I lived after I finished my master’s degree in California. My master’s thesis research explored the impact of recent Medicaid funding changes on a specific model of home and community based services in the United States, and how this change affected their conceptualization of ‘good care.’ Though I am formally new to the field of Disability Studies, I first developed an interest in residential options for intellectual and developmental disability as a family member, and have since found a lifelong passion for disability advocacy and the politics of care.

Why did you choose DHD at UIC?
I chose this program because of its unique position as a full and autonomous department of Disability Studies with so many incredible and talented faculty, and because of its consistent work with various community stakeholders and organizations around Chicago.

What do you want to do with a DHD degree?
I am not sure yet-I would like to continue working on improving and complicating care for intellectual and developmental disability, but I have yet to determine what form that will take—in or beyond academia.

Research Interests
Residential care settings for I/DD
Homemaking
Care work
Ethnography
Affect theory
Inclusive methodology

Education
MS, Community Development, The University of California Davis, 2020. BA,
Psychology, Vassar College, 2015