Program and Speakers 2027

“Disabilities and AI”

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 AI . 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 is a white woman with curly dark blonde hair. she wears a purple pink dress with a black leather jacket. she smiles broadly
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.

upper body shot of Oana Branzei, a black-haired woman wearing a dark top and a white jacket.
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 15 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 2027

Monday, 1 March 2027

tbc

Tuesday, 2 March 2027

Wednesday, 3 March 2027

Thursday, 4 March 2027

Friday, 5 March 2027