Head and shoulder image of Karen looking towards the outside of the frame. She is smiling with a slight gaze upwards. Karen has black straight hair parted on the right side that is just above shoulder length. She has dark brown eyes. She has on a bu…

Head and shoulder image of Karen looking towards the outside of the frame. She is smiling with a slight gaze upwards. Karen has black straight hair parted on the right side that is just above shoulder length. She has dark brown eyes. She has on a burgundy shirt with a v neck opening and a collar.

Karen Yoshida

Karen Yoshida, Ph.D. is a Professor at the Department of Physical Therapy, University of Toronto. She has initiated and led an innovative Critical Disability Studies and health and wellness/diversity component, with disability rights communities in Toronto within this department since 1987. She is a member of the Rehabilitation Science Institute, Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Collaborative Program in Women’s Health, University of Toronto. In 2008 she was a Fellow in Columbia University’s Summer Institute on Oral History (topic: Narrating the Body: Oral History, Narrative and Embodied Performance). Her current research focuses on Activist Disability Oral History, arts-based research and dissemination, disability leadership, embodiment and women living with disabilities and their access to health services. As part of the Bodies in Translation Partnership grant, Dr Yoshida is leading an oral history study on Canadian disabled and cultural activists.