Akemi Nishida
Learner and advocate of disability justice activism
“It is mutual nurturing of one another and our communities by sharing one another’s crip, mad, neurodiverse, Deaf, sick wisdom.”
We are proud to induct Akemi Nishida into the Susan Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame.
Akemi Nishida uses research, education, and activism to investigate how ableism are exercised in relation to racism, cis-heteropatriarchy, xenophobia and other forms of social injustices. She also uses such methods to work towards cross-community solidarity for the liberation and celebration of community power. She is currently finishing her first book on care, where she discusses how care is used as a mechanism of oppressions towards those who are situated as care recipients and providers. She also illuminates in the book how people of marginalized communities use care as a grassroot tool for social transformation and care is foundation to the social justice work. She has been member of national organization, Disability Justice Collective, NYC-based care collectives (community-based mutual aid groups), and Chicago-based disability- and race-justice group, AYLP. Additionally, she works as an assistant professor in Disability & Human Development and Women’s & Gender Studies Departments at University of Illinois at Chicago.