Zana Marie Lutfiyya completed her graduate training and postdoctoral work at the Center on Human Policy, Syracuse University. She joined the University of Manitoba in 1992. Her longstanding research interest has been identifying and examining the factors that help or hinder the valued social participation of individuals with intellectual disabilities in community life. This has included where individuals live, go to school, work and take part in recreational activities. She was part of a multi-disciplinary team that studied vulnerable people and end of life care. She has facilitated the participation of individuals with intellectual disabilities in the research process, both as participants and in helping determine research goals and questions. In 2013, with her colleague Karen Schwartz, she began a study that focuses on how individuals with intellectual disabilities understand the concept of human rights, and how they are supported to learn and exercise these rights. Since 2015, she has served as the director of the Peace and Conflict graduate studies program.

Valued social participation of individuals with intellectual disabilities