“Disabilities and Technologies”
We have an amazing program set up for you! Below you can find out what we have planned for each of the five days. This year’s Spring Institute will focus on f technology . This Spring Institute employs an allyship model of research in which disabled and non-disabled researchers work together. Many of our faculty members are disabled themselves or are carers of disabled family members.
Every day, sessions will run from 1-5pm UK time. The entire event is free of charge and virtual and will be hosted via Zoom. .
Co-Founders
Anica Zeyen
Professorin Entrepreneurship and Inclusion, Royal Holloway Business School, Royal Holloway University of London (UK)
Dr Anica Zeyen is a blind academic whose work sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, organisation, disability research, and leisure, art, and culture. She leads and collaborates on research projects across the Global South and Global North, examining how dominant ideas about work, productivity, and “the right way” to live shape inclusion and exclusion across professional, cultural, and everyday spaces. Her research is grounded in inclusive, qualitative approaches and informed by lived experience, with a strong commitment to ethical, participatory, and accessible research practice. Anica’s work challenges deficit-based and instrumental framings of disability, foregrounding disability as a source of insight into organising, leadership, creativity, and social change. Alongside her academic work, she contributes to public conversations on access, inclusion, and everyday life through writing, speaking, and disability advocacy.. More on her work on her web page.
Oana Branzei
Professor of Strategy, Ivey Business School, Western University (Canada
Dr. Oana Branzei is a Professor of Strategy and Sustainability at the Ivey Business School, Western University. Her areas of expertise include social innovation, social enterprise, and organizing for self-, society-, and system-transformation in response to grand challenges. She has held editorial positions on the boards of the ‘Academy of Management Review’, ‘Journal of Management’, ‘Journal of International Business Studies’. She is completing her second full term as field editor of the Journal of Business Venturing and co-edited several recent special issues on prosocial, regenerative, place-based and inclusive organizing.
Pre-Session 16 February
This session takes place before the Spring Institute and will help you prepare.
During this 90-minute session (1 – 2:30pm UK time), we will introduce you to the Spring Institute Format, provide you with all the necessary information to get the most out of the Spring Institute.
Spring Institute 2026
Sunday, 1 March 2026
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Monday, 2 March 2026
This day will feature innovative theoretical lenses on disability and technology.
The Ethics and Morality of Market-Based Hope in Illness Entrepreneurship
Susi Geiger
Ireland
bio to follow
Tuesday, 3 March 2026
This day focusses on methodological innovations for disability research.
tba
Wednesday, 4 March 2026
tba
Thursday, 5 March 2026
For the first time, this year we are able to run a full day on special issues in the field of management and disabilities. This shows us how much the field has grown. We will have four mini paper development workshops.
Spring Institute 