Remigiusz Kijak

Professor, special needs educator, specialist in sexology, qualitative researcher focusing on scientific research in the field of sexuality of people with intellectual disabilities, thus making an important contribution to the knowledge of this, so far been largely tabooed, sphere of human life. He has been involved in establishing the field of disability studies, queer, and crip theory. He is a professor at the University of Warsaw and the University of Rzeszów, a member of the Special Needs Pedagogy Team within the Committee of Pedagogical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Professor Kijak's work focuses on crip, critical theory and disability studies. He is interested in social movements and representations of people with disabilities. He conceives disability as a potential and through his research opposes hegemonic forms of disability framing. His first book, published by Impuls, provided an empirical testimony of the fulfilment of sexual potential by people with disabilities, the first such account in Poland. His subsequent studies addressed further novel topics, such as partnerships and relationships of people with intellectual disabilities (in a book published in 2016) or parenting by people with intellectual disabilities (2019).

Professor Kijak is also the editor-in-chief of the scientific quarterly Niepełnosprawność i Rehabilitacja and editor of several Polish and two international journals. He sees the new role of scientists in crossing boundaries and exploring new spaces in which researchers has so far been absent. He raises questions about the role of new methodologies in the study of intimacy among people with disabilities. He joins performative spaces while being a performer himself, the boundary crossing exercise exemplified e.g., in the theatrical performance by Theatre21, titled Libido Romantico, in which he joined the actresses and actors of Theatre21 on stage.