Facilitate This! Reflections from Disabled Women in Popular Music

Anthea Skinner has a Ph.D. in musicology from Monash University and currently works as a research associate on the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne. Her main research interests are disability music culture, military music and organology. Skinner is also a qualified archivist and previously worked as a journalist for disability media outlets, including Link Disability Magazine and the ABC’s Ramp Up. She is the secretary of the International Council of Traditional Music’s Study-Group-in-the-Making on Indigenous Music and Dance, and the access and equity officer of the Musicological Society of Australia. Skinner also plays percussion in the Bearbrass Asylum Orchestra.

Jess Kapuscinski-Evans is a theater maker, sings with crip folk trio the Bearbrass Asylum Orchestra, and recently formed The Waiting Room Arts Company, which commissions disability-led artistic projects by emerging artists in a range of disciplines. She won a joint Green Room Award this year for best performer in Contemporary and Experimental Performance and has presented work at the National Play Festival, the Emerging Writers Festival and Melbourne Fringe Festival. She enjoys playing with existing texts, music and pop culture references, and using them to create new and interesting stories about experiences of disability.