Episode 22: Winnie Looby and Leah Schulz

In this episode, UVM faculty member and academics coordinator Winnie Looby interviews Vermont artist Leah Schulz.

Leah’s art directly references her experiences of multiple disabilities, as well as addressing and incorporating elements of who she was before she became disabled. Leah’s painting “Cyclical Choices” (2023) is part of an exhibit of work by Vermont artists with disabilities. The exhibit is being produced by Inclusive Arts Vermont, and is being shown at the UVM Davis Center, in Burlington Vermont, before being shown around the state, and then returning to Burlington for an extended residency with the UVM Center on Disability and Community Inclusion. We’ll hear from Leah about her journey as an artist, as well as how disability shapes her art, and what it’s like to be back on the UVM campus — this time as an exhibitor, instead of a student.

Episode 17: Winnie Looby & Nicole Villemaire

Dr. Winnie Looby, director of the UVM Graduate Certificate in Disability Studies, connects with disability self-advocate and researcher Nicole Villemaire. Nicole has been working in Dr. Looby’s Disability Studies courses as a teaching assistant, and she shares what that experience has been like, along with more of her own story as a passionate self-advocate.

Episode 4: Winnie Looby & Kinda Abujbarah

Dr. Winnie Looby and Dr. Kinda Abujbarah connect briefly about Dr. Abujbarah’s experience with cerebral palsy and how it led her to travel from Amman, Jordan, to the United States to pursue greater educational opportunities — and how COVID-19 has impacted opportunity at universities.

“I wrote my whole dissertation with a typist in another state. So, technology and being able to work remotely, I’ve been doing that since before COVID, but I thought COVID might open more opportunities for me to work remotely.”

Episode 2: Winnie Looby & Sefakor Komabu-Pomeyie

On this episode of CDCI Connects: a conversation between Dr. Winnie Looby and Dr. Sefakor Komabu-Pomeyie. Dr. Komabu-Pomeyie recounts her experience of disability, from contracting polio as a child in Ghana, to a tragic accident that impacted her mobility, and how the support of her mother and her faith helped position her to grasp hold of educational and entrepreneurship opportunities.