Leni Van Goidsenhoven is an Assistant Professor of Critical Disability Studies at LCA.
Her research focuses on disability, illness, neurodiversity, inclusive learning environments, and representations of non-normative bodyminds in arts and literature. She has a special interest in reconceptualizing ‘voice’, the importance of integrating lived experiences in research, and accessibility aesthetics. She mostly engages with new materialist thinking, Black studies, crip theory, Mad and Disability studies, and (speculative) care ethics.
At this moment, Leni is a guest curator for the City theatre NtGent where she curates a program on diversity on stage. She works closely together with artists like Sonja Jokiniemi, Iris Bouche, and Karel Verhoeven. She co-founded both the Autism Ethics Network (Funded by FWO) and the Neurodivergent Humanities Network (funded by NNMHR).
Previously, Leni worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Philosophy Department of the University of Antwerp (Belgium), where she was involved in Kristien Hens’ interdisciplinary ERC project NeuroEpigenEthics. She wrote her PhD on autism (FWO) at the Cultural Studies Department of KU Leuven (Belgium, sup. Anneleen Masschelein). She was involved in teaching Literary Studies, Bio-Ethics, Cultural Studies, and Illness and Disability narratives. She also worked as a curator for Museum dr. Guislain and with Jan Hoet.
In 2021 her exhibition OnGehoord, scientific work and book on voice (OnGehoord) were awarded the Annual Award for Scientific Communication from the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts
Leni published in international journals such as Frontiers of Psychiatry, Choreographic Practices, Life Writing,Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, Developmental medicine and child neurology, Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research and Qualitative Inquiry. She is the author of the book Autisme in veelvoud (Garant, 2020) and OnGehoord (Epo, 2021), and the ‘What Are You Reading’ editor for DiGeSt - Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies.