The Kate Welling Disability Awareness Lecture was endowed by Helen and Tom Welling in memory of their daughter Kate, a Miami University student who died in a 2005 off-campus fire. Kate discovered a passion for disability issues while taking an introduction to Disability Studies course and was involved in campus advocacy for disability rights. She was inspired to make disability rights her life’s work. Since 2007, the endowed lecture brings leaders and innovative thinkers in the area of Disability Studies who are able to share their ideas and passion with the Miami community.

Past Lectures

• 2023- Dr. Liat Ben-Moshe "Prisons are Not the New Asylums and Other Myths of Deinstitutionalization" 
• 2022- Dr. Susan Burch: "Committed: Remembering Native Kinship in and beyond Institutions"
• 2021- Cameron S. Mitchell and Dr. David Mitchell: Disposable Humanity: Film Screening & Discussion
• 2021 - Dr. Nirmala Erevelles: “Scenes of Subjection”: Carceral Logics and Disability Labor at the Intersections
• 2019 - Micah Fialka-Feldman: "Intelligent Lives, a Film by Dan Habib"
• 2018 - David “Deej” Savarese: “Deej: Inclusion Shouldn’t be a Lottery”
• 2017 - Andrew Solomon: “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children & the Search for Identity”
• 2016 - Steve Silberman: “The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity”
• 2015 - Simi Linton and Christina Von Tippelskirch: “Invitation to Dance”
• 2014 - Harilyn Russo: “Don’t Call Me Inspirational”
• 2013 - Jonathan Mooney: “Re-drawing the lines on Neurodiversity: A Compass to a Changing World”
• 2012 - Dr. Joseph Hill: “When Worlds Collide: Insights at the Intersection of the Deaf, Disability, and Dominant Cultures”
• 2011 - Greg Fehribach: “The Disability Culture: Enhancing Today’s Economy”
• 2010 - Ken Petri: “Rewiring (Dis)Ability: Access Goes Mainstream”
• 2009 - Ann Palmer: “Realizing the College Dream with Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome”
• 2008 - Simi Linton: “My Body Politic: An Illustrated History”
• 2007 - Jeanne Kincaid: “The Changing Face of Disability”