Pamela Block

I am a Disability Anthropologist and Professor at Western University. Broadly my research interests include disability culture and social movements, and sociocultural perceptions of disability. I study the intersection of gender, race, economic status, and sexuality in movements for disability liberation (justice and rights) and disability oppression (eugenics, sterilization, mass-incarceration and killing) in Brazil, the US, and Canada. I am also interested in the emergence of disability studies scholarship around the globe.

I have studied disability experience on individual, organizational and social movement levels, with past funded research involving socio-environmental barriers, empowerment/capacity-building, and health promotion. Current funded research and collaborative scholarship includes:

• Social movement activism led by disabled people in relation to activism led by family members in the US
• Sibling mutual care relationships and planning and facilitation experiences in Canada
• Research creation of “disability portraits” by disabled people in Brazil
• Experiences of disabled Afro-Brazilian women in university

My qualitative research methodologies combine historical and discourse analyses with community-based ethnographic, autoethnographic, and participatory approaches. I experience ADHD and anxiety and have an Autistic older sister named Hope who I have written about and co-authored about her experiences as a family member, activist, and service recipient in the US.

Books

Family and Disability Activism: Beyond Allies and Obstacles (2025) Study Guide Pamela Block, Allison C. Carey, and Richard K. Scotch (eds), Temple University Press

Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities (2020) Study Guide Allison C. Carey, Pamela Block, and Richard K. Scotch, Temple University Press (book talk and panel discussion here)

Occupying Disability: Critical Approaches to Community, Justice, and Decolonizing Disability (2016) Block, P., Kasnitz, D., Nishida, A., Pollard, N. (eds). Springer Ltd.

Journal Articles

Block, P., Ries, H., Kassem, D. (2025). Extraordinary Measures of Sibling Care Relationships. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 

Gesser, M., Aydos, V., Block, P., Xavier da Silva, P. (2024). Ableism in educational trajectories and the production of access fatigue. Educação & Realidade 49(2). (also available in Portuguese)

Gesser, M., Aydos, V., Block, P., Escada A. (2025). Ableism in the academic trajectories of Black disabled women: an intersectional analysis. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies. 14(3).

Reparon, R., Block P., Fudge-Schormans, A., Rudman, D. L., Teachman, G. (2024) Critiquing representations of intellectual disability in occupation-based literature. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy. 31:1

Lorandi, J. M. and Block, P. (2023) Social and health experiences of disabled people with complex medical conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research in Social Science and Disability.13:113-34.

Friedner, M. and Block, P. (2022) Recuperating the Bad Outcome: Reimagining Optimal Futures beyond Auditory Verbal Therapy and Applied Behavioral Analysis. The Senses and Society. 

Alumukhtara, A., Johnstone, L. DePasquale, R., Warren, N., and Block, P. (2022) Aging with (and into) Assistive Technology: An exploration of the narratives of amputees and polio survivors. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology

Karp, P. and Block, P.(2022). Float to Grow: Nurturing the Roots of Socially Inclusive and Just Practice in Occupational Therapy Students. Brazilian Journal of Occupational Therapy.

Gesser, M., Block P., and Mello A.G. (2022) Estudios sobre discapacidad: interseccionalidad, anticapacitismo y emancipación social. Andamios 19(49).

Block, P. with Diallo, S. (2020). Activism, anthropology and disability studies in times of austerity. Wenner Gren Symposium Proceedings. Current Anthropology.61(21): S68-S75

Book Chapters

Carey, A., Scotch R., P. Block (in press) Parent Activism in the Era After the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Routledge History of Disability in America. Routledge.

Gesser, M., Aydos V., Block, P. Escada, A. (2026) Narrativas de Mulheres Negras com Deficiência no Ensino Superior: Os Efeitos do Capacitismo em Trajetórias Acadêmicas. Estudos da Deficiência na Educação: Descolonizando o olhar e provocando rupturas ao normocentrismo.

Block, P. Carey, A., and Scotch R. (2025). Introduction (eds. Block, Pl, Carey A., and Scotch, R.) Family and Disability Activism. Temple University Press.

Block, P (2025) Aging Out of Children’s Hospitals: 20th and 21st century experiences of children with complex medical conditions and their parents. (eds. Block, Pl, Carey A., and Scotch, R.) Family and Disability Activism. Temple University Press.

Nepveux, D., Wagner, A., Block, P., Kasnitz, D. (2024). Aging Disgracefully: Perspectives on Disability Experience and Activism from Disability Studies and Anthropology. Occupational Therapy with Aging Adults. Elsevier.

Gesser, M. & Block, P. (2024). Capacitismo. In: Maria Fernanda Diogo [Org.] Diálogos interdisciplinares em Psicologia e Educação. (pp. 48-54).  São Carlos: Pedro & João Editores.

Block, P. (2023). “EOP: Health Management through Spoon Theory and Disability Justice.” In G. Gillen, C., Brown, & E. Ramugondo (Eds.), Willard & Spackman’s Occupational Therapy, 14th edition. Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

Block, P. (2023). “EOP: Collective Access.” In G. Gillen, C., Brown, & E. Ramugondo (Eds.), Willard & Spackman’s Occupational Therapy, 14th edition. Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

Gesser, M, Block, P, & Leite, LP. (2023). Do capacitismo ao acesso coletivo no ensino superior. In: Sandra Eli Sartoreto de Oliveira Martins e Ana Paula Camilo Ciantelli (Orgs.). Inclusão e Acessibilidade na Educação Superior: desafios atuais, vol. 1. Cultura Academica Editora.pp.79-109.

Ramawati, D., Block, P. (2021). Sexuality and Sexual Rights of Young Adults with Intellectual Disability in Central Java, Indonesia. Routledge Handbook of Disability and Sexuality. New York: Routledge.

Karp, P. & Block, P. (2021) We Float Together: Immersing OT Students in the Salamander Project. In Occupation Based Social Inclusion. (Eds. Brueggen, H., Kantartzis, S., and Pollard, N. Whiting and Birch, London, UK.

Gesser, M., Block P. Mello A. (2020). Estudos da deficiência: interseccionalidade, anticapacitismo e emancipação social. In (Eds. Gesser, M; Böck, G & Lopes, P. H.) Estudos da Deficiência: anticapacitismo e emancipação social [Disability Studies: Anti-ableism and social emancipation]. Florianópolis: CVC.

OpEds 

Block, P, Ries, H, Kassem, D (2026). As disabled people increasingly outlive their parents, many siblings struggle to take on new care responsibilities. Toronto Star. Jan. 19, 2026.

Block, P, Ries H. (2026). Siblings are holding up a broken disability system. Montreal Gazette. April 10, 2026.

Carey, AC, Block P, Scotch R (2026). A multistate lawsuit threatens disabled rights. Trump’s remarks don’t help. The Hill. May 1, 2026.

Films

Barretto, J., Bernardo, S., Block, P., Conceição, A., Silva, J., Silvestre, S., Sousa, L., Simões, T., Teixeira, B. (2024) “Filús” 

Block, P. (2016) “Home: A Story of Hope Block” Produced by Patty Douglas – Enacting Critical Disability Communities in Education. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Block, P., Milazzo, M., Rodriguez E. (2010) “Growing Up with MS” Produced by Jason da Silva.

Podcasts and Radio Interview

Carey, A. Block P. and Scotch R. (2023) Barrier Free Future KSFR 101.1 Sante Fe., Discussion of Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities and Family and Disability Activism. 

Carey, A. Block P. and Scotch R. (2023) Allies and Obstacles, Disability History Association Podcast April 14, 2023.

Block, P. (2023). Autastic Podcast Guest Speaker, Sibling Care Relationships. June 26, 2023. 

Carey, A. Block P. and Scotch R. (2022) Allies and Obstacles, Beyond Awareness Podcast October 2, 2022.

Carey, A. Block P. and Scotch R. Allies & Obstacles- Building Social and Cultural Capital (buzzsprout.com). Disability Talks: Don’t Dis My Ability, Season 2, Episode 23. October 2021

Courses I have taught:

• ANTH 2278 - Anthropology of Race, Ethnicity and Identity
• ANTH 2290 - Cultures of Health, Illness, Disability and Healing
• ANTH 3354/9230 - Disability and Health in Local and Global Worlds
• ANTH 3356F/9217 - Anthropology and Embodiment
• ANTH 3378 - Bio-Cultural Debates in Race and Ethnicity
• ANTH 3382 - Intersectional Identities in Brazil
• ANTH 3393/9225 - Deviance, Difference, and Resistance

I am interested in supervising in topics involving disability worlds, especially in the global south but also north. I also supervise people looking at other aspects of identity and power (gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity etc.) who are interested in applying a disability studies theoretical and methodological lens to their research.

List of PhD graduates:

Dian Ramawati, Defended August 2022 HRS/DS, SBU “Sexuality, Sexual Education, and Sexual Rights of Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities in Indonesia”

Alexandra Wagner, Defended June 2020 HRS/DS, SBU. “Understanding the Experiences of Older Adults with Age Related Cognitive Changes Who are Aging in Place”

Maria Milazzo, Defended August 2019, HRS/DS, SBU. “Lessons about Living Well at the Intersection of Adolescence and Multiple Sclerosis”

Sylette Henry-Buckmire, Defended August 2018 HRS/DS, SBU. “Mobility-as-Occupation: Justice Manoeuvres and Negotiations in T&T”

Cassandra Evans, Defended December 2017 HRS/DS, SBU. “Asylum to Community and In Between: Examining the post-Deinstitutionalization Transitional Experiences of Mentally Disabled Individuals in Suffolk County, Long Island”