… creating spaces for thinking through
Hi Everyone
If you would like to present at the DRF on January 30th (10am-12pm), please get in touch by the end of the day on Thursday (23rd). Both slots are still available. If there are no takers for this session it will be cancelled and we will go ahead with the session in Feb.
Please see here for details of which dates and times are still available if you would like to present!
🙂
Hi Everyone!
Here are the seminar sessions for the DRF from January to May. We will then break for the Summer and be back in October.
Please do get in touch (s.r.hannam-swain@shu.ac.uk) if you would like to present at any of these sessions and please check out our accessible presentation guidelines.
Thursday 30th January (subject to people signing up as it’s short notice), 10am-noon
Monday 10th February, 2-4pm
Tuesday 10th March, 2-4pm
Monday 30th March, 2-4pm
Thursday 7th May, Noon-2pm
Hope to see you there!
Steph
Design and Undertaking Participatory Research: Practical Issues, Successes and Challenges Tuesday 7th April 2020, Sheffield Hallam University.
This one-day workshop will bring together researchers doing social research, working with or interested in participatory research approaches. The event will include: presentations with Q&A; lunch and refreshments (included); and a round table discussion to network and share ideas.
Call for Papers: You are invited to submit an abstract (max 200 words) for a 15-minute presentation on your research. Presentations are sought on the following themes:
Please submit abstracts by: Friday 31st January 2020. Bursaries of up to £50 are available to cover travel expenses for presenters.
Please see poster for full details.
Organised by Ruth Beresford, for further information or to submit an abstract please contact: r.e.beresford@shu.ac.uk
Time: 2 – 4pm
Place: Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus. Charles Street Building, Room 12.2.19 (This is on the second floor), Howard Street, S1 1WB.
Speaker 1: Sam Fellows
Title: “Why symptom-based approaches are not enough: the value of psychiatric diagnoses”
Abstract:
Critics are concerned that psychiatric diagnoses fail to accurately describe patients and therefore should be abandoned. Most patients do not have all symptoms associated with their diagnosis and most patients have symptoms which are not associated with their diagnosis. Knowing someone has a diagnosis seems to convey much less useful information compared to knowing what symptoms someone has. This situation has lead critics of psychiatric diagnosis to claim diagnoses make no contributions to understanding individuals, they are harmful distractions and should be abandoned (e.g. Timini, Gardner & McCabe 2011). Psychiatrists should instead establish what symptoms an individual has rather than give them a diagnosis. In this paper I will employ Ronald Giere’s account of scientific theories to show that those critics are mistaken to see psychiatric diagnosis as making no useful contribution.
Giere describes how scientific theories are abstract generalisations which lack specific detail. For example, Newton’s laws, by themselves, make no claims about the world. Rather, they guide the building of more specific models and these specific models can be used to make claims about the world. He describe scientific theories as “recipes for constructing models” (Giere 1994, p.293). This notion of scientific theories as recipes which guide the building of less abstract models has not yet been applied to psychiatric diagnoses.
Psychiatric diagnoses should be seen as recipes for constructing models of people. I argue they guide the construction of models of people, making contributions to understanding individuals which are absent when simply focusing upon what symptoms are being presented by specific individuals. Firstly, many symptoms can be subtle and difficult to spot. A patient may be unaware of the symptom and psychiatrists cannot practically investigate for every possible symptom. Psychiatric diagnoses can help guide investigation of symptoms. If an individual exhibits a few symptoms of a psychiatric diagnosis then there is reason to investigate for other symptoms of that psychiatric diagnosis. For instance, if an individual exhibits low social skills and low eye contact, both of which are symptoms of autism, then there is reason to investigate for other symptoms of autism. This may help spot subtle symptoms such as rigid thinking or difficulty accommodating to changes. Thus the diagnosis guides investigating for the presence of symptoms. Secondly, patients fluctuate in the symptoms they present over time. The symptoms which are presented to a psychiatrist at time of interview may not cover symptoms previously exhibited or those exhibited in the future. However, knowing the individual has a diagnosis which is associated with a range of symptoms, more than any one diagnosed person actually exhibits, guides awareness towards a range of possible symptoms not present in a diagnosed person at one specific time. The diagnosis guides awareness towards alternative symptoms that may present at other times within diagnosed individuals. Thirdly, symptoms themselves have a level of generality and may manifest in quite different ways. For example, the low social skills of autistic individuals are typically quite different to the low social skills of schizophrenic individuals. Thus knowing the diagnosis of an individual can lead to greater understanding of how specific symptoms manifest. The diagnosis guides building more realistic models of ways individuals manifest symptoms.
By framing psychiatric diagnosis in terms of Giere’s account of scientific theories I have shown how psychiatric diagnosis make a contribution to understanding individuals. Thus critics of psychiatric diagnosis are mistaken to believe psychiatric diagnosis make no contribution and are mistaken to believe they should be abandoned.
References:
Giere, Ronald, N. (1994). The Cognitive Structure of Scientific Theories. Philosophy of Science, 61/2, 276-296.
Timini, Sami., Gardner, Niel. & McCabe, Bain. (2011). The Myth of Autism (Palgrave-McMillian).
Speaker 2: Richard Woods
Title: Is the concept of Demand Avoidance Phenomena (Pathological Demand Avoidance) real or mythical?
Abstract:
This talk presents results of a content analysis of the diagnostic and screening tools for the proposed autism subtype Demand Avoidance Phenomena (DAP, commonly called Pathological Demand Avoidance), investigating if the construct has specificity. There is much growing interest in DAP and despite the lack of supporting evidence, some expect it to be included in England’s coming Autism Strategy. Specificity is when a trait is unique to a particular subject. I replicated a similar content analysis conducted by Nick Chown on tools for Broader Autism Phenotype and Autistic Traits. His results suggest that those constructs lacked specificity and are reified constructs. It is frequently argued in the DAP literature that it lacks specificity, by replicating Nick Chown’s study; I am attempting to falsify this viewpoint. I will present my full results at the talk. My preliminary analysis of the main 2 tools for DAP, the Extreme Demand Avoidance-Questionnaire and 11 items on the Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders, support the common notion that DAP lacks specificity. These results would indicate how seriously DAP should be taken and if it should additionally be diagnosed in non-autistic persons.
Message on behalf of Holly and Ryan at University of Sheffield:
We still have several places available for our inaugural ‘Duty of Care’ event on the 12th December.
These ‘Duty of Care’ workshops will focus on researcher vulnerability and we are hoping to highlight the physical, psychological and mundane vulnerability that can accompany the research process. We endeavour to create an informal and relaxed space where new researchers can share their stories and experiences and learn from one another. We hope that this event might provide the catalyst for the formation of an informal ‘Duty of Care’ support group, amongst other things.
We would love to see you there – free tickets available below:
If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Best wishes,
Ryan Bramley and Holly Burkinshaw
***More Details to follow closer to the event***
Time: 2 – 4pm
Place: Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus. Charles Street Building, Room 12.2.19 (This is on the second floor), Howard Street, S1 1WB.
Speaker 1: Sam Fellows
Title: “Why symptom-based approaches are not enough: the value of psychiatric diagnoses”
Speaker 2: Richard Woods
Title: TBC – presentation around the results of content analysis of screening tools for Broader Autism Phenotype
Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies
Special issue: Advertising and diversity: The framing of disability in promotional spaces
Guest editors:
Ella Houston and Beth Haller
Outline:
In recent years, disabled people are increasingly featured in advertisements. Moreover, disabled people are now included in a larger variety of advertisements, for example, those produced by fashion and beauty companies. On the subject of contemporary advertising portrayals of diverse bodies, Lennard J. Davis (2013:4) highlights ‘… a trend to embrace the diversity of the human body within certain kinds of limits… cherry-picking the aspects of diversity that appeal to a regnant paradigm’. In other words, while the makers of advertisements now may be more likely to feature disabled people in their campaigns, traditional beauty standards and expectations are often not strongly challenged. While it is beneficial that the makers of advertisements include disabled people in their campaigns more frequently, it is problematic that portrayals of disability tend to be limited in the ways diverse bodies, minds and lives are imagined.
Building on this understanding of the representation of ‘diverse’ bodies in advertising, the overall aim of this special issue is to examine the representation of disability, and themes surrounding diversity, in advertising. In doing so, we welcome contributions that offer critically informed analyses of disability portrayals in advertising that might draw on work from fields such as: disability studies, gender studies, critical race theory, cultural studies, media and communication studies. Proposals for papers that may explore (but are not limited to) the following questions and topics are welcomed:
– The representation of disabled people in international advertising campaigns
– Intersectional analyses of advertising representations of disability
– Reoccurring narratives surrounding disability in advertisements – are historical narratives and stereotypes surrounding disability challenged and/or reinforced in contemporary advertising?
– Audience responses to advertising representations of disabled people
– Disability, celebrity and advertising
– Cross-analyses of portrayals of disability in multi-media advertising
– The extent to which ableist ideologies are challenged or reinforced in contemporary advertising
– Interdisciplinary approaches to discourses surrounding diversity in advertising
– Contemporary and/or historical analyses of the representation of diversity in advertising
– Advertising disability and diversity in neoliberal contexts
– The accessibility of advertisements featuring disabled people
– Promotional use of disabled people by disability organizations
Timetable:
27th January 2020: Deadline for submission of 250-word proposal for articles and a short biography to the guest editors Ella Houston and Beth Haller at JLCDS.ads@gmail.com
10th March 2020: Prospective authors will be notified of proposal status
19th October 2020: Full versions of selected papers to be submitted to guest editors
25th January 2021: Final papers will be selected. Authors will receive decisions and revisions on papers
20th April 2021: Deadline for submitting final, revised papers to guest editors.
Time: 2 – 4pm
Place: Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus. Charles Street Building, Room 12.4.18 (This is on the fourth floor), Howard Street, S1 1WB.
Speaker 1: Celina Kamecka
Title: Dis-ability = dis-active? Reasons for discussing civic activity of Polish students with intellectual disabilities
Abstract:
For 4 years I have been conducting civic education workshops in special schools in which students with intellectual disability learn in Poland. During this time I carried out 3 research projects regarding the civic activity and identity of students and I would like to talk about it. It will not surprise anyone how important and effective civic education is. And it is already a truism to speak about the rights guaranteed to persons with disabilities by the UN Conventions. That is why in my presentation I would like to focus on two other aspects. First, how Polish students with intellectual disabilities perceive themselves as citizens, and how they evaluate their civic activity. Secondly, how the support system for people with intellectual disabilities in Poland can determine their perception of their citizenship. Presenting the results of my research, I will focus on video recordings that students have prepared themselves as part of the film workshop title: “what is the common good for me”. And on our conversations regarding the space of their civic activity, which is a deepening of the answers obtained in the adapted questionnaire for quantitative research. Author’s adaptation of the ready questionnaire for civic activity to the needs of people with intellectual disabilities – which I will also present, showed new fields of social and research participation of my respondents.
Speaker 2: Stephen Connolly
Title: Everyone should do emancipaticipatory research, but i don’t want to do it again.
Abstract:
This talk will be on the issues encountered when doing emanciparticipatory research right. Focusing on the methodology of my PhD I will be discussing the unexpected but now obvious paradoxical effect where the bigger the strength for those that would be traditionally termed participants, the bigger the issue you face as a researcher.
Terms linked to emanciparticipatory research would be freedom, flexibility, open and no time pressures. However within the confines of academia these terms present a problem that must be navigated for emanciparticipatory research to survive.
This overarching problem also forms the foundations for my argument that emancipatory research is a goal that currently can not be achieved within academia and i am to explain why.
Just confirming that there will be no DRF session this Monday (21st October) due to it being too short notice to get people to present.
Nov 18th is going ahead though! See you all there
Hello everyone
This post is to announce three seminar dates this side of Christmas. I have been unable schedule more dates for after Christmas as my academic timetable isn’t finalised, but these will follow in January.
If you would like to present this side of Christmas we have the following dates and times available, please drop me an email (s.r.hannam-swain@shu.ac.uk) and let me know which would be best for you. There are usually two people presenting per 2 hour session (approx 20 minutes each for the presentation and 40 minutes each for discussion).
Monday, 21st October. 2pm – 4pm
Monday, 18th November. 2pm – 4pm
Thursday, 12th December. 2pm – 4pm.
Once I have people allocated to a slot I will update the Events page on this blog with the speakers name, presentation title and a short abstract.
Thanks
Steph
