Embodied Inequalities in Disability and Development

Hisayo Katsui is Associate Professor in Disability Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has been a board member of the Nordic Network of Disability Research; an editor of the Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research; chairperson of the Finnish Society for Disability Research; and a permanent expert to the Finnish Advisory Board for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Previously, she worked for the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Disability, Shuaib Chalklen. She also worked at the Abilis Foundation, a Finnish grant-making organisation of persons with disabilities, formerly led by the late Kalle Könkkölä. Her research interests are disability rights realization in practice as well as participatory research approaches. She has conducted research on disabilities in Central Asia, Ethiopia, Finland, Nepal and Uganda, the findings of which are included in her latest book (2020) entitled, Disability, Globalization and Human Rights. 

Virpi Mesiäislehto is a PhD Candidate at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and an associate researcher at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Her PhD thesis investigates intersectionality of disability and female adolescence in the context of sexual and reproductive health and rights in Mainland Tanzania. She has recently published on health disparities related to accessing sexual and reproductive health services in Tanzania. Based in Tanzania, she has worked as a Regional Programme Advisor for Fida International, and as a consultant for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Mesiäislehto’s interests are on methodologies, best practices and programming for disability inclusion and gender equality in the context of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the global South.Virpi Mesiäislehto Virpi Mesiäislehto