Thomas Abrams
Associate Professor
On sabbatical July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025
Ph.D. (Sociology, Carleton University)
Sociology
Queen's University
Sociology of Health and Illness, Disability Studies, Qualitative Health Research, Sociological Theory
I have three empirical research projects underway. The first is an historical study of disability policy and freedom in Canada, the US, and France. The project explores how disabled folks express freedom in different times, places, and (English and French) languages from the 1970s to the present day. Secondly, I am beginning a SSHRC-funded study qualitative study of disabled technology users in their search for and romance. Finally, I continue to work with qualitative researchers in the health and social sciences on three collaborative projects, on disability and quality participation, disability and community-based care in a global context, and in the theoretically informed rehabilitation sciences.
Before coming to Queen’s in 2018, I was a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow in the department of Social Justice Education, OISE / University of Toronto (2014-2016), and later, a Killam postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie’s department of Sociology and Social Anthropology (2016-2018). I completed my doctoral work at Carleton’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
I am on sabbatical, but in 2023/2024, I taught:
- SOCY 226 (Central Concepts in Sociological Theory)
- SOCY 425 (Sociology of Health, Illness, and Disability)
- SOCY 936 (Disability Studies, at the graduate level)
I am accepting prospective graduate students, and undergraduate thesis supervisions, for the 2025-2026 academic year, especially those interested in disability studies, sociological theory, and the sociology of health and illness. Please include a CV and draft project statement if you get in touch with me via email.
Please see my for full publication list.
Book:
Abrams, T. (2016). Heidegger and the Politics of Disablement. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Publications:
Zuzunaga Zegarra, D., and Abrams, T., Sick kids versus whom? Childhood disability and charitable campaigns on Instagram. Convergence. Online First: DOI: 10.1177/13548565231211310
Abrams, T and Orsini, M. Waves of Ableism: Affective Arrangements in the Time of COVID-19. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies. 2022;11(3):154-180.
Translation: Abrams, T and Orsini, M., Vagues de capacitisme : Arrangements affectifs au temps de la COVID-19, 2024;13(1):174-203.
Abrams, T., Thille, P., and Gibson, B.E. (2021), “Putting Affect Theory to the Breathing Test,” https://doi.org/10.1057/s41286-021-00125-0.
Abrams, T., (2021) “Towards a Social Psychoanalysis of Rehabilitation Practice”, Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation. Online:
Abrams, T. and Abbott, D., (2020) “Disability, Deadly Discourse, and Collectivity Amid COVID-19.” Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 22(1): 168-174.
Abrams, T., and Setchell, J.. 2018. “Living with Death in Rehabilitation: A Phenomenological Account.” Human Studies 41 (4): 677–95. .
Abrams, T., Setchell, J., Thille, P., Mistry, B. and Gibson, B.E., (Forthcoming) “Affect, Intensity, and Moral Assemblage in Rehabilitation Practice.” BioSocieties. DOI: 10.1057/s41292-018-0115-2
Abrams, T. (2017). “Braidotti, Spinoza, and Disability Studies After the Human”. History of the Human Sciences. 30(5), pp. 86-103.
Abrams, T. (2014). “Flawed by Dasein? Phenomenology, Ethnomethodology, and the Personal Experience of Physiotherapy”, Human Studies. 37(3). pp. 431-446.
Abrams, T. (2014). ““Boon or Bust?” Heidegger, Disability Aesthetics and the Thalidomide Memorial”. Disability & Society. 29(5). pp. 751-762.
Abrams, T. (2014). “Re-reading Erving Goffman as an Emancipatory Disability Researcher”. Disability Studies Quarterly. 34(1). Online: http://www.dsq-sds.org/article/view/3434.