(UB)
SUNY RF || College of Arts and Sciences
SUNY RF || College of Arts and Sciences

Communities of Care Project

Birdseye aerial view of the City of Buffalo at sunset. The expansive urban scene faces south east. In the foreground, highlighted by the golden light of sunset, are several buildings in the downtown district, including the art deco style City Hall, and the ultra modern Court House. In the background, residential districts are visible in the distance. In the upper right corner, the Skyway winds out toward the shoreline of Lake Erie, showing the windmills of Lakawanna. The Boston hills appear in the distance.

LEADERSHIP AND STAFF

RESEARCH

Welcome to the Communities of Care project!

We are building a digital community archive and research guide through which we can share our stories and learn about our history and culture. 

On our site you will find co-created stories from a broad range of people with disabilities, mental health experiences, and care workers in Buffalo, Western New York, and beyond who have shared their experiences of self-advocacy, mutual aid, peer support, and the paid and unpaid labor of caregiving.

Our community archive includes exhibition spaces featuring stories told through conversation, writing, and art as well as artist galleries. Our research guide is there to help you learn more about the history and culture of people with disabilities. 

This is a living archive and research guide, it is constantly growing. Be sure to check back often. 

Share your story with us! 

NEWS AND NOTES

Michael Rembis' new book, Writing Mad Lives in the Age of the Asylum (Oxford University), enables a significant new interpretation of the history of madness and asylums, as well as the people who occupied them. The Department of History recently hosted a special event to celebrate the book, with commentary by Prof. Rachel da Silveira Gorman (York). Learn more about the book.

Victoria Wolcott receives the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities 2025. One colleague described Wolcott as “the most influential and talented historian working at the juncture of gender, race, recreation, and civil rights ideology in modern American.” Learn more about the awards.

Events

The Communities of Care is a sponsor of special events, lectures, art exhibits,  symposia, and more throughout the year. Our events bring together community members, students, faculty, artists, writers, and others to share their work on care and caring communities. Learn more.

UB Center for Disability Studies

The UB Center for Disability Studies offers academic degree programs that provide students and community members with the tools needed to advance the study of disability within the humanities in collaboration with social sciences, education, law, and the health sciences. Learn more.

UB Gender Institute

The Gender Institute, a UB-wide research center founded in 1997, offers grants and awards to UB faculty and students. We support scholarship on women and on the intricate connections between gender and other social forces, such as sexuality, race, class, health, age, religion, and place. Learn more.

UB SPHHP

The mission of the School of Public Health and Health Professions (SPHHP) is to improve the health of populations, communities and individuals through disciplinary and interdisciplinary education, research and service. Through a range of research initiatives and centers, the SPHHP is contributing to improved health for populations, communities and individuals. Learn more.