Biography - Professor Hisayo Katsui

Hisayo Katsui is Professor in Disability Studies at the University of Helsinki. She has been a board member of the Nordic Network of Disability Research; an editor of the Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research; chairperson of the Finnish Society for Disability Research; and a permanent expert to the Finnish Advisory Board for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Previously, she worked for the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Disability, Shuaib Chalklen. She also worked at the Abilis Foundation, a Finnish grant-making organisation of persons with disabilities, formerly led by the late Kalle Könkkölä. Her research interests are disability rights realization in practice as well as participatory research approaches. She has conducted research and collaboration projects on disabilities in Central Asia, Ethiopia, Finland, Uganda, Nepal, Japan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Cambodia, Mongolia and Nordic contries.

The latest books are Embodied Inequalities in Disability and Development (2022), and Disability, Happiness and the Welfare State: Finland and the Nordic Model (2024). The latest reports are Epävarmuutta ja vaihtelevaa osallisuutta (2023) and Avenues for disability inclusion in climate and biodiversity action (2024).