Christine Ashby
Christine Ashby is an Assistant Professor in the Teaching and Leadership Department of the School of Education at Syracuse University and the Research Director of the Institute on Communication and Inclusion. Within the ICI, she oversees all research projects and plays an active role in training and workshops for individuals who communicate through typing, facilitators, and school personnel.
At SU, she teaches in the Inclusive Elementary and Special Education Program and the Graduate Inclusive Program. Ashby is also a Co-Director of the Schools of Promise Initiative, focused on inclusive school reform. Her teaching and research focuses on inclusive education broadly, with specific emphasis on supports for students with labels of autism and other developmental disabilities, facilitated communication, disability studies, and inclusive school reform. A consistent theme throughout her research and writing is the challenging of the construct of mental retardation and a consideration of the social construction of competence. Her work seeks to disrupt dominant notions of disability as deficiency and underscores the importance of considering the lived experiences of individuals considered to have significant disabilities. Dr. Ashby's research has been published in journals including the International Journal of Inclusive Education, Disability and Society, Teacher Education and Special Education, and Intellectual and Developmental Disability.