Jane (Mango) Angar

I am a PhD candidate in the Political Science Department at the University of California, Berkeley. My research examines how persons with disabilities emerged as a shared political and social identity across different impairments, as well as the emergence and development of disability rights movements across Africa and their efforts to secure recognition, rights, and inclusion from the state. In particular, I investigate how colonial and postcolonial pathways shape the long-term development and political success of these movements, including their ability to secure concessions such as inclusion in national censuses, disability rights legislation, and protections against discrimination and exclusion.

My work draws on interviews with disability rights activists, archival research, and original datasets tracking disability mainstreaming efforts and state recognition across multiple African countries, including Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, and Uganda. More broadly, my research uses disability politics to rethink questions of citizenship, collective action, state legibility, and marginalization in postcolonial states.

In addition to my research, I am committed to making computational social science and academic research more accessible to all, advocating for inclusivity in both methodology and knowledge sharing. Please check out our website geared at facilitating connections and sharing of information between academics researching issues of disability, health, and wellbeing at https://disabilityresearchglobally.squarespace.com/.