Member Spotlight: Laura Yakas

LAURA YAKAS

Ann Arbor, School of Social Work,

Lecturer II

What is your area of specialty?

Academically, I feel most at home in the critical disciplines of Mad Studies and Disability Studies. This connects to my passion for Disability Justice and Mad Justice!

What are you proud of as a lecturer?

I am proud to represent various oppressed communities in my role a lecturer. Specifically, I am proud to be visible as Mad/Neurodivergent, as queer, as non-monogamous, as indigenous, as a first generation academic. When I was a student I felt very alone and imposter-syndrome-y, in part because I did not see myself in any of my professors!

What might others not know about you?

I am also a performing artist, and I have been nominated for a Fringe Festival award for my radical anti-oppressive musical comedy!

What is something that you are proud of outside your role as a lecturer?

I am proud of my radical comedic music - I couldn't survive this white-supremacist imperial-capitalist cis-hetero-patriarchal hellscape without it! It is cathartic, and it is also my opportunity to educate outside of the classroom. I sing about the very same topics I explore in my classes - basically, if you take my social justice class, subtract the articles and slides, and add swearing and singing, you get one of my shows!