In 2023, I joined Palgrave Macmillan as the commissioning editor for a newly established publishing programme in Disability and Neurodiversity Studies. What started as a new professional adventure for me was in fact the culmination of a journey begun years earlier at the press thanks to visionary colleagues. Since the early 2000s, Palgrave published a number of influential and widely cited books that have helped shape debates across the field and are now considered classics, such as Contours of Ableism: The Production of Disability and Abledness (Fiona Kumari Campbell, 2009), Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction (Dan Goodley, 2012), The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Citizenship in the Global South (edited by Brian Watermeyer, Judith McKenzie and Leslie Swartz, 2019), and Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline (edited by Steven K. Kapp, 2020).
When I started commissioning in this field, I soon realised that many academic presses did not have a dedicated disability and neurodiversity publishing programme and that scholarship on disability was often dispersed across different editorial portfolios and, as a consequence, less visible to the very communities it aimed to serve. Palgrave decided to change this narrative, and the Disability and Neurodiversity Studies programme is now a driving force in the Transdisciplinary Social Science Books team.
The decision to focus more intentionally on this research area reflected both the growing prominence of disability scholarship and the recognition that the field's inherently interdisciplinary nature required a more tailored approach, capable of connecting research across sociology, social policy, education, health, science and technology studies, politics, and socio-legal studies.
From the very beginning, the programme has been shaped in close dialogue with its readers and contributors. Building relationships with academics, attending conferences, and engaging with scholarly networks such as the Nordic Network for Disability Research (NNDR), the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds, the Núcleo Milenio Estudios en Discapacidad y Ciudadanía (DISCA) and the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD) have played a central role in helping me understand the needs of this community, identify emerging research areas and develop my commissioning priorities. Rather than imposing an editorial vision from above, the programme has grown through ongoing conversations with researchers, creating a shared space that reflects both the diversity of the field and its commitment to social change. These are longstanding foundations of Palgrave’s own editorial line that inform our publications as well as initiatives like the Social Science Matters campaign.
At the very heart of the Disability and Neurodiversity Studies publishing programme are disability justice frameworks, intersectional approaches, and Global South and postcolonial perspectives, reflecting a growing commitment to addressing structural inequalities and diversifying knowledge production.
If I were to select five publications that I am particularly proud to have commissioned and published since the programme officially launched, these would be my choices:
- Challenging Assumptions Around Dementia: User-led Research and Untold Stories, by Rosalie Ashworth et al. (available in Open Access)
- The Palgrave Handbook of Research Methods and Ethics in Neurodiversity Studies, edited by Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist and David Jackson-Perry
- Doing Disability Research in Africa: Reflections from the African Network for Evidence-to-Action in Disability (AfriNEAD), edited by Gubela Mji
- Equal Rights, Equal Voices: The CRPD and the Pursuit of Legal Capacity for Persons with Intellectual and Psychosocial Disability, edited by Paula Campos Pinto, Teresa Janela Pinto, Patrícia Neca and Fernando Fontes (available in Open Access)
- Cripping Endometriosis: Feminist Disability Histories and Reflections on Power and Pain, by Maria Rovito – the credit for bringing this great book to life belongs to my colleague @Rebecca Longtin , Commissioning Editor for Palgrave Gender Studies. I am grateful to her for ensuring this topic received the attention it deserves.
Together, these books reflect many of the themes that are currently shaping the debates in disability studies, from social justice and postcolonial perspectives to neurodiversity, inclusion, and participatory approaches to research. The same intention underpins our book series, such as Palgrave Studies in Disability and International Development, Palgrave Studies in Disability in Asia and the Pacific (launched in 2026) and the forthcoming Palgrave African Disability Studies.
As the programme continues to grow, my commitment to engaging with our readers, authors and editors remains strong. Meeting scholars to discuss what resources are needed or what gaps in the literature are still overlooked is as important as in my first days. If you are doing research in disability studies, neurodiversity studies, mad studies or related fields, I would love to connect and hear your thoughts on potential new directions for the programme.
I am particularly interested in developing new book series. Why? Book series play a vital role in building scholarly communities, increasing the visibility and long-term impact of research, and ensuring that important conversations develop cumulatively rather than in isolation. They offer a dedicated home for scholars working on related themes to connect and build on each other’s work. If any of the topics below resonate with you, or if you have a book series idea that you would like to discuss, do not hesitate to reach out: Critical Disability Futures; Disability, Technology and Society; Disability Justice and Social Change; Neurodiversity Studies; Disability, Gender and Sexuality; and Disability and Environmental Justice.
Here’s to many more years of publishing, learning and building this community together.