Health & Wilderness: Unpacking the story of ableism and fatphobia in the outdoors

Join us for an interactive presentation taking a critical disability lens to the history of American conservation to trace its connection to the parallel development of ableism in America, and how together these function as tools of colonialism. Attendees will learn about how “wilderness” was established as an instrument to define and refine wealthy white male bodies in service to white supremacy during the Progressive Era. With this foundation, we will trace a throughline of ways that ableism and sizeism have gone unchecked in media and discourse about the outdoors up unto the present day.