Reminder: DRF is back on Monday with a session on ‘Thinking with ‘Chemical Stories’

Just a quick reminder that the dates for 16-17 seminar series schedule is now available, along with details of the first seminar.

Dr. Kirsty Liddiard (University of Sheffield) and Dr. Esther Ignagni (Ryerson University, Toronto) will be sharing their groundbreaking, internationally acclaimed work, “Thinking with ‘Chemical Stories’” on Monday, 28th November 2016, 11am-1pm, Arundel 10311 (Sheffield Hallam University).

More info here.

Venue: Seminars are held in the Arundel Building, 122 Charles Street, City Campus, Sheffield Hallam University, S1 1WB.  For a map of City Campus click here.

Call for Submissions: Knots: An Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies #3

Journal: Knots: An Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies

Submissions Due: 1^st January 2017

Description: The Equity Studies program (at New College, University of Toronto) invites submissions for the next issue of Knots: An Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies. Knots is a peer-reviewed journal that highlights high-calibre work by undergraduate students, and undergraduate alumni*, which moves beyond normative biomedical conceptions of disability and contributes to the development and growth of Disability Studies as a field. The editors are open to the widest array of topics that contribute to Disability Studies and to the continued examination and deconstruction of ableism. Submissions in the forms of essays, creative writing, book and film reviews, and art pieces are welcome. Submissions are not limited to students from the University of Toronto.

The theme for Knots Issue #3 is interdependency. Interdependency challenges ableist and capitalist assumptions of independence as a universal ideal. In ‘Changing the framework: Disability Justice’ Mia Mingus (2011) writes:

“we want to move away from the “myth of independence,” that everyone can and should be able to do everything on their own. I am not fighting for independence … I am fighting for an interdependence that embraces need and tells the truth: no one does it on their own and the myth of independence is just that, a myth.”

In a world where the desirability of independence is a rarely questioned norm, embracing interdependency can be a radical act of resistance for disabled people and allies. Interdependency exists on many levels, including (but not limited to) between humans; humans and animals; humans and machines; and within communities.

We welcome a range of submissions, including those that engage with the concept of interdependency in the context of Disability Studies. We encourage all submissions to take up an intersectional analysis.

Requirements and Reviewing: Submissions should be original and unpublished with an emphasis on completed (rather than intended) works. Essays should be 4500 words maximum, excluding bibliography; book and film reviews should be 1000 words maximum; art pieces should be accompanied by an artist’s statement not in excess of 500 words.

Style and Process: Manuscripts should be fully and correctly cited in APA style. Submissions will be evaluated on both significance and relevance to the field of Disability Studies as well as technical strength and clarity, and should be accompanied by a 100-word abstract and a short author bio. Submitted work will be subject to peer-review; successfully reviewed entries will be returned to submitters for revisions before being approved for publication. Once the editorial period has come to a close, we will not accept any changes to an accepted paper.

Submission Procedure & Information: The submission process is electronic: all manuscript submissions can be made online to knots.contact@gmail.com by no later than January 1st, 2017. The author/s name and the title of work both should appear in the subject line of the email; the full manuscript should be attached as a PDF file to the editors.

 Any questions regarding content, submission, or accessibility requests should be directed to knots.contact@gmail.com.

* ‘Undergraduate alumni’ refers to people who are no longer registered undergraduate students but who wish to submit work produced during their undergraduate degree.

Westminster Education Forum on ‘Policy Priorities for SEND (Nov, 2016: London, UK)

Title: Policy priorities for SEND – implementing local area inspections, raising educational outcomes and extending support for families

Date: Thursday, 3^rd November 2016

Place: Central London, UK

**This Event is CPD Certified**

Description: Bringing together key stakeholders and policymakers from across the education sector, this seminar will consider policy priorities for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Planned sessions will also look at measures to improve the educational attainment of children with SEND, including government’s new review into assessment of pupils with lower attainment – expected to be published at the beginning of 2016 – which follows evidence cited by the Department for Education that 50,000 pupils currently fall below the standard required to take national curriculum tests, including many with SEND. Delegates will also assess the implementation and progress to date of the SEND Code of Practice – two years on from its introduction – including the impact of the Local Offer, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans and personal budgets, which aim to give children and families more choice and control over the kinds of support they receive.

At this early stage, we are delighted that Dr Adam Boddison, Chief Executive, nasen has agreed to be a Guest of Honour at this seminar. Nigel Thompson, Head of Children and Health & Justice, CQC; Janet Thompson, Deputy Chair, Rochford Review and Headteacher, Dorothy Goodman School, Leicestershire and a senior speaker confirmed from SENJIT (Special Educational Needs Joint Initiative for Training), Institute of Education, University College London has also agreed to deliver a keynote speech. Matthew Ellis, Associate Director, South West Maternity and Children’s Strategic Clinical Network, NHS England; Simon Knight, Deputy Headteacher, Frank Wise School, Oxfordshire; Laxmi Patel, Solicitor and Head of Education, Boyes Turner and Julie Stockdale, Head of Schools & Commissioning, Surrey County Council have also agreed to speak.

For more details: click here.

Now Booking: Disability Studies Student Society Symposium (Liverpool Hope University, UK: June, 2016)

The Disability Studies student society symposium at Liverpool Hope University hopes to bring together students across the North-West to share, discuss and advise on research methodologies in disability studies. The symposium is open to students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, to explore a range of innovative and creative methodologies within the growing field of disability studies.

This is a free event, however for catering purposes please confirm your attendance via the registration form which can be found here.

We invite submissions of abstracts of up to 300 words for paper presentations that detail methodological approaches to research projects, both those that have been completed and those that are currently underway.

The student symposium will be held at Liverpool Hope University on Wednesday 22nd June 2016. A full schedule for the symposium will be updated and available shortly as will be details for registration.

Abstracts of up to 300 words should be submitted for consideration by 29th April 2016 to12000935@hope.ac.uk Presenters will be informed via email by 22^nd May 2016.

For more information please follow this link https://studentsymposiumliverpoolhope.wordpress.com/

PhD studentship: Children with Learning Disabilities as Digital Audiences (Univ. of Glasgow, UK)

AHRC funded PhD studentship at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with BBC Scotland: “Children with Learning Disabilities as Digital Audiences”

Applications are invited for a full PhD studentship in Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow to work in collaboration with the Children’s Department at BBC Scotland. The aim of the project is to explore the provision and design of digital media by the BBC for older children with learning disabilities. This exciting opportunity will require the researcher to divide his or her time between the University of Glasgow and the Children’s Department within BBC Scotland (situated in the Pacific Quay in Glasgow). The student will have unique access to the Children’s Department, working amongst BBC staff to capture a sense of the existing provision of digital content for children with learning disabilities and the ways in which BBC Scotland engage with this audience. The project will then continue through a small scale qualitative study that will capture how, why and when digital media is used, interpreted and enjoyed by members of this specific audience. The student will then return to the BBC with their research findings and work alongside colleagues to develop a ‘pitch’ for the design or redesign of digital content that will allow the BBC to respond directly to the needs and desires of their targeted audience.

The specific question this project poses is how we might re-imagine content for differently-abled audiences that is appropriate to both their cognitive abilities and their personal/social needs and desires. (Aims and Objectives are posted below)

A supervisory team from across both institutions will oversee this work and full research training (including audience research skills if required) will be offered. The team will include Dr. Amy Holdsworth and Professor Karen Lury from the University of Glasgow and Ms. Sara Harkins (Head of Children’s BBC Scotland) with relevant support from professional colleagues within BBC Scotland.

he studentship is funded for three years to commence in October 2016 and covers tuition fees at the Home/EU rate. Home students and EU students who have lived in the UK for 3 years prior to the award will also receive a maintenance bursary (stipend) of approx. £14,296 for 16-17 plus an additional £550 travel allowance. In addition, the student is eligible to receive up to £1,000 a year from the BBC to support travel or other expenses directly related to the doctoral research, and will be given use of a desk and computer at the University of Glasgow and appropriate access and resources at the BBC. All AHRC Collaborative PhD students automatically become part of the UK-wide Collaborative Doctoral Partnership development scheme which will provide training in a range of skills needed for research within museums, archives, galleries and heritage organisations.

Informal enquiries are welcome.

Please write to Dr. Amy Holdsworth (Amy.Holdsworth@glasgow.ac.uk ) in the first instance.

Candidates ideally should have:

• A good 2.1 Honours (or B.A.) degree in a relevant Arts or Social Science discipline.
• A Masters degree in a related discipline or appropriate professional experience within children’s media, digital media, audience development, working with children and young people with disabilities.
• A good understanding of contemporary Children’s Television, digital media and issues and debates within disability studies
• An interest in, or first-hand knowledge of, audience research. • Applicants should be able to demonstrate strong research capabilities and be fluent in spoken and written English.

Applications should include: • A statement of no more than 1,000 words indicating what skills and experience you have that will be relevant for the project. • A current CV • Degree transcripts (this may be an interim transcript if you are still studying) • An example of writing – e.g. academic essay, professional report – up to 3000 words in length • 2 academic/professional references (these may be sent directly from your referees if they would prefer)

Applications to be sent to Jeanette.Berrie@glasgow.ac.uk (Research Administrator, School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow) with the subject line BBC CDA.

Closing Date: Wednesday 15th June 2016

Interviewees will be notified by Thursday 23^rd June and interviews will take place at the University of Glasgow on Friday 1^st July 2016.

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The Project: Through initial audience development work, colleagues at BBC Scotland have already observed the ways in which digital content designed for a young (‘pre-school’) audience is being used by older children with learning disabilities. They have recognized that while these young people may have less sophisticated ‘operational’ abilities their desire and interest in age appropriate content is not necessarily affected. In simple terms, games or interactive challenges aimed at 4-7year olds may represent an appropriate operational challenge (how to work the game, how to move about and between different parts of the page) but are inappropriate in terms of content (older children and young people are more likely to respond positively to content such as WolfBlood rather than In the Night Garden or ‘Mr. Tumble’). The project will therefore focus on this particular issue and ask how we might re-imagine content for differently-abled audiences that is appropriate to their cognitive abilities and their personal/social needs and desires.

 Aims and objectives.

The aims and objectives of this collaborative project are designed to both reflect upon and develop the BBC’s relationship with its differently abled child audience.

Aims

1. To explore the provision of content for children with learning disabilities: Initial stages of the research will explore the existing provision of digital content for children with learning disabilities and the ways in the children’s department at BBC Scotland engage with this audience (through audience development initiatives, for example). This initial ‘snapshot’ accompanied by critical investigation of academic literature on children, disability and media will form a building block for the student to design and implement a qualitative audience study.
2. To conduct a small-scale qualitative audience study of children with learning disabilities as digital audiences/users: Utilizing the appropriate methodologies (see below) the student will capture how, why and when digital media is used, interpreted and enjoyed by children with learning disabilities. This fieldwork will importantly also offer the child the opportunity to reflect upon and discuss their use of digital media (e.g. their preferences, desires, likes and dislikes).

Objectives

3. The student will disseminate research findings through traditional academic outputs and through partnership with the BBC: One of the principle objectives of the project is for the research to have an avenue of dissemination within the BBC to allow the institution to reflect upon and develop their own practices and forms of audience engagement. The links with BBC Scotland and its contacts present opportunities for the research to be accessed by other stakeholder communities and organisations (such as ‘for Scotland’s Disabled Children’ (fSDC)).
4. To implement research findings through the production of a BBC ‘pitch’: Through the student’s involvement at BBC Scotland he or she will utilise their research on this specific child audience in the development, design or redesign of games, applications or website provision for this audience.

CFP: ‘Discourses of Care: Care in Media, Medicine and Society’ (Sept. 2016; Glasgow, UK)

Event: Discourses of Care: Care in Media, Medicine and Society Conference

Location: Gilmorehill Halls, 9 University Avenue, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ

Date: Monday 5^th – Wednesday 7^th September 2016

Deadline for proposals: Friday 3^rd June 2016

Keynote speakers:

• Prof. Eva Feder Kittay, Stony Brook University NY
• Prof. Andrew Kötting, artist and filmmaker, University for the Creative Arts

Summary: This Wellcome-funded interdisciplinary conference aims to support and foster collaborative work in relation to media and questions of care and well-being, focusing on care and care giving as critical concepts. Bringing together scholars from film and television studies, medical humanities, disability studies, and philosophy, we will debate how understandings of medical and social care are (and might be) positioned in relation to media and cultural studies. This would be a significant first step toward building inter-disciplinary alliances and driving forward work within the as yet under-determined field of ‘visual medical humanities’. The specific focus of the conference and anticipated publication/s is to explore the ways in which media do more than simply represent care and caring (although representation, of course, remains an important issue). Taking a new approach, the conference will explore how media forms and media practices (the creation, exhibition and reception of media) may act as a mode of care. Thus we wish to explore how different kinds of media programming, media technologies and media practices present opportunities in which care is manifest as both an ‘attitude’ and a ‘disposition’ (Feder Kittay).The event will underpin at least one multi-authored publication. Through this conference we will explore the politics and ethics of care-relationships and contest binary understandings of autonomy and dependency amongst individuals with cognitive and physical disabilities, carers and medical professionals. We are particularly interested in the nexus of youth (the ‘child’), age (the ‘aged’) and disability as a way of opening up alliances and challenges to popular cultural notions and representations of care and dependency. We are now looking for academics, care providers, and creative practitioners of all levels, periods, and fields to submit proposals for 20 minute conference papers.

We invite papers on topics that include (but are not limited to):

• Relationships between care and media
• Definitions of care in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
• Autobiographical representations of and reactions to care
• Disability studies approaches to care and dependency
• Media practices and outputs as modes of care
• Care and the visual medical humanities
• Adaptive technologies and care
• Spectatorship, care, and media
• Care, media, and children
• Care, media, and ageing
• Use of media in health education and rehabilitation
• Consumer ‘choice’ and ‘autonomy’ in popular culture
• Screen cultures in our ‘institutions of care’ (e.g. the NHS and the BBC).

Please email an abstract of up to 300 words and a short bio (100-200 words) to the conference organisers (discoursesofcare@gmail.com) by Friday 3^rd June 2016. The conference team will respond to proposals by Friday 10^th June 2016.

There are a limited number of travel bursaries available for postgraduate and/or early career presenters; the recipients of these grants will be asked to write a short reflection on the conference, which will be published on the Glasgow Medical Humanities Research Centre blog, and the conference website.

If you wish to be considered for one of the travel bursaries, please email us for an application form and submit it with your abstract and bio. We will contact all respondents on the outcome of their proposal by the end of June 2016. Thanks to funding from the Wellcome Trust, this conference will be free to attend.

The conference venue, the Gilmorehill Building, is fully accessible, and the conference will include accommodations such as pre-circulated papers and discussion topics, ending with an interactive roundtable discussion. For more information on access, transport, and the venue please visit our website. If you have any questions, please email the conference team at discoursesofcare@gmail.com, or contact us via @CareDiscourses.

Conference team: Prof. Karen Lury (Film and TV), Dr Amy Holdsworth (Film and TV), and Dr Hannah Tweed (English Literature).

Seminar: ‘Becoming a SENDCO: making sense of changing professional identities (April, 2006: Sheffield, UK)

Title: Becoming a SENDCO: making sense of changing professional identities.

Date: Tuesday, 5^th April 2016

Time: 12.00pm – 1.00pm

Venue: Room 9006, Cantor Building, Sheffield Hallam University

Description: Sheila Sharpe will outline her current research study which investigates the changes that Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinators (SENDCos) may experience as they begin to inhabit the new role of specialist in ‘special education’ and how this new role (and new ‘specialist’ identity) influences or changes their pedagogical thinking and practice. The study seeks to investigate how the identity of a teacher develops into the identity of a specialist teacher. The desired outcome of the research is to provide insights into the interrelationship between external and internal factors in the formation of SENDCo identity. This will enable an understanding of the particular significance of SENDCo identity formation in the role of the ‘specialist practitioner’.

The research study’s broader aims are to:

1. gain an understanding of the particular significance of SENDCo identity
2. uncover some of the discourses SENDCos use to narrate and make sense of their role
3. uncover the factors that influence the establishment of a SENDco identity

 

The aims will be achieved by using the qualitative methodology of narrative enquiry. This form of narrative enquiry will allow the researcher to hear how the SENDCos construct meaning from their perceived role and their personal belief systems and investigate what is it that marks the SENDCO out as different and enables them to take on a different and specialist identity.

It’s not necessary to book please attend if you can.

Disability Studies Student Society Symposium (Liverpool Hope University, UK: June, 2016)

The Disability Studies Student Society Symposium at Liverpool Hope University hopes to bring together students across the North-West (and beyond) to share, discuss and advise on research methodologies in disability studies.

We invite submissions of abstracts of up to 300 words for paper presentations that detail methodological approaches to research projects, both those that have been completed and those that are currently underway. We are not expecting polished papers, rather we want to create a safe and open space to share ideas, concerns and questions.

The symposium is open to students, both undergraduate and postgraduate. We are interested in hearing about a range of innovative and creative methodologies within the growing field of disability studies.

The student symposium will be held at Liverpool Hope University on Wednesday 22^nd June 2016. A full schedule for the symposium will be updated and available shortly as will be details for registration.

Abstracts of up to 300 words should be submitted for consideration by 22^nd April 2016 to 12000935@hope.ac.uk. Presenters will be informed via email by 22^nd May 2016.

For more information regarding submission, or general information concerning the symposium please contact: Leah Burch – Email: 12000935@hope.ac.uk

CFP: ‘Dissecting the Page: Medical Paratexts, Medieval to Modern’ edited collection

From Christina Lee and Freya Harrison’s discovery of the MRSA-combatting properties of an Anglo-Saxon recipe, to the increasing popularity of Ian Williams’ Graphic Medicine as a teaching tool for medical students, current research into the intersections between medicine, text, and image is producing dynamic and unexpected results (Thorpe: 2015; Lee and Harrison: 2015; Taavitsainen: 2010; Couser: 2009; Cioffi: 2009; Díaz-Vera: 2009). Recent years have seen conferences on paratextual research, and a range of events orientated around literature and medicine. The purpose of this edited collection is to open up wider scholarship into medical paratexts, spanning pragmatics, literary studies, and the medical humanities.

We propose that the breadth of research into medical book history in the medieval and early-modern period will prompt productive and innovative overlaps with work on modern medical paratexts. We understand paratext as the apparatus of graphic communication: title pages, prefaces, illustrations, marginalia, and publishing details which act as mediators between text and reader. Discussing the development of medical paratexts across scribal, print and digital media, from the medieval period to the twenty-first century, the collection will be provisionally structured in three chronological sections: Anglo-Saxon and Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern periods.

We are now looking for academics, artists, and medical professionals to submit abstracts on topics pertaining to medical paratexts. We invite proposals on topics that include (but are not limited to):

• the role of the medical preface
• graphic medicine in popular culture
• medicine, illness, and/or disability and graphic novels
• the development and role of medical (and medicalised) illustrations
• the advertising and placement of texts depicting medicine/illness/disability
• the development of paratext in medical texts from script to print
• the use and readers of medical texts
• auto/biography and medicine
• online medical writing, publishing, and paratexts

We have received initial interest from Palgrave Macmillan about the proposal, and intend to submit a full proposal for a Palgrave Pivot edited collection of approximately 40,000 words. Key benefits of the Pivot model include publication within three months of acceptance of final manuscripts, flexible length, peer review, and availability in e-book and hardback formats.

• The provisional timeline for the collection is as follows:
• January: deadline for abstracts (500-700 words)
• May: first drafts of articles submitted to editors (4000-4500 word chapters)
• June: article drafts returned with comments
• August: final proofs submitted to Palgrave
• December: publication of edited collection.

Please email an abstract of 500-700 words and a short bio to the conference organisers (Dr Hannah Tweed and Dr Diane Scott) at medicalparatexts@gmail.com by Sunday 10th January 2016. We will respond with decisions on chapters by the end of January 2016.

CFP: Disability and Shakespearean Theatre Symposium

Where?: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Lilybank Gardens, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ

When?: 9.45am-5pm, Wednesday 20^th April 2016

Attendance fee?: £25 full, £15 concession, free for BSA members

What?:  This symposium draws together growing research interest in disability studies and Shakespearean theatre. In discussing the depiction, treatment, and uses of disability in Shakespeare’s work (and that of his contemporaries) alongside analysis of the role of disability in staging of his plays, we hope to encourage interaction between creative practitioners, historians, and literary scholars. Playwright and disability studies scholar Prof. Chris Mounsey (University of Winchester) will give the keynote address on “VariAbility in Shakespeare”, in which he will explore alternative ways of responding to the question of the existence of disability in the Early Modern period, and to one of Shakespeare’s most infamous characters: Richard III. Following the symposium, Glasgow-based playwright Molly Ziegler (Notes, Getting it (Back)) has agreed to premier her new play, Let Her Come In. Let Her Come In is a one act rewriting of Hamlet, focused on mental illness, gender, and disability.

We are now looking for academics, actors, and creative practitioners of all levels, periods, and fields to submit proposals for 20 minute conference papers, or 5-10 minute position papers for discussion. We invite papers on topics that include (but are not limited to):

• Disability in contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare
• 21^st-century understanding of (and challenges to) disability on the Shakespearean stage
• VariAbility and categorisations of disability on stage (especially as applied to mental and physical disabilities)
• Staging disability (actors, prostheses, costumes, etc.)
• Disabled actors and staging Shakespeare
• Signed Shakespeare, captioning, and assistive technologies
• Disabled scholars’ experience of Shakespeare in performance and the academy
• Cultural and historical concepts of disability in Shakespearean texts
• The language of disability in Shakespeare
• Challenging the idea of Shakespeare as savant
• Disability and Shakespeare’s collaborators and contemporaries
• Disability studies theory and Shakespearean theatre

Further Details?: Please email an abstract of up to 300 words and a short bio to the symposium organisers (disabilityandshakespeare@gmail.com) by Friday 15^th January 2016. Please indicate if your proposal is for a position paper. There are two small travel bursaries available for postgraduate/early career presenters; the recipients of these grants will be asked to write a short reflection on the symposium, which will be published on the BSA website, the Glasgow Medical Humanities Research Centre blog, and the symposium website.

If you wish to be considered for one of the postgraduate bursaries, please email us for an application form and submit it with your abstract and bio. We will contact all respondents on the outcome of their proposal by Friday 22^nd January 2016. Thanks to funding from the British Shakespeare Association, this symposium will be free to attend for BSA members. Symposium attendees are welcome to join the BSA in advance of the event or on the day.

The symposium venue, the Sir Alwyn Williams Building, is fully accessible, and the symposium will include accommodations such as pre-circulated papers and discussion topics, ending with an interactive roundtable discussion. For more information on access, transport, and the venue please visit our website. If you have any questions, please email the symposium team at disabilityandshakespeare@gmail.com, or contact us via @Disability&SS.