4 de October de 2024

‘Building Bridges: The Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Science‘, by María Pilar Díaz López, consultant expert in social polities and co-director of the Master’s program “Inclusion, Social Rights and Citizenship of People with Disabilities”.

Seminar information

• Organized by the Equality committee of Geosciences Barcelona & the Equality comission of the faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Barcelona
• Date: 23 October at 12.00
• Place: The Faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Barcelona

Abstract

Social inclusion aims to ensure that all individuals, including those with disabilities, have access to the same opportunities and resources to fully participate in political, economic, social, educational, labor, and cultural life, promoting social cohesion and the common good. Therefore, an inclusive society is one that values and respects the diversity of all individuals, promoting equal opportunities and eliminating all barriers that prevent their full and effective participation. Consequently, all of us who are part of this society must feel compelled to join efforts to identify and address the social and cultural barriers that persist in our community and that will greatly contribute to making it effective, building a more equal, just, and equitable society.

About the speaker

María Pilar Díaz López is a PhD candidate in Education and Society from the Faculty of Education at the University of Barcelona. She holds a Master’s in Disability, Personal Autonomy and Dependency Care (UNED) and a Master’s in Human Resources, specializing in Disability (UNED). She also has a Postgraduate degree in Communication and Leadership Politics (UAB).

She has a degree in Social Work and currently develops her professional work as a consultant expert in social policies, associate professor at the University of Barcelona, and a collaborating professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is co-director of the Master’s program “Inclusion, Social Rights and Citizenship of People with Disabilities” and the postgraduate course “People with Disabilities, Social Rights and Equality of Opportunities” at UB.

She is a former Secretary of the Social Services Department and former councilor at the Barcelona City Council. She was director of the Observatory of Disability of Barcelona (2016-2018) and coordinator of various publications, reports, and other documents, among them, Monograph #12: “Women with disabilities, double discrimination” (2018). She has participated in different institutions and social entities as a representative of women with disabilities: COCARMI, CERMI, Fundación CERMI Mujeres, CEMUDIS, LAB, participating in various awareness-raising events, such as the UN’s “Vulnerability of women and risk factors for gender violence against women with disabilities” (2021), as well as publishing an article in Fundación CEDER’s coordination “Basic Handbook on Gender and Disability” (2020), funded by the Women’s Institute, and presenting at the main conference of the “State Conferences on Women with Disabilities and Aging” (2020), also by COFEMCE. She has teaching experience in the area of ​​Social Work at the Faculty of Education at the University of Barcelona, and she supervises undergraduate thesis work in Social Work. She is also a board member of the DKV-Integralia Foundation.