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Post-Graduate Research Students

Toby Atkinson (Department of Sociology)

Peter Fuzesi (Department of Sociology)  From designing for different users to economies of difference  (Working title). My doctoral research stands at the intersection of Disability Studies and Science Technology and Society (STS). I am interested in how corporeal and technological norms and standards are co-articulated in human bodies, technologies and especially in the figure of the user. In practice, this means that I conducted an ethnographic study on how users of assistive and rehabilitation technologies are configured in design, development and service delivery within healthcare systems. 

Ella Houston (Division of Health Research) My PhD research focuses on the representation of disabled women in UK and US advertising, from a feminist disability studies perspective. I am particularly interested in critically exploring cultural tropes surrounding disabled women and examining whether and how such stereotypes impact on the subjective wellbeing of disabled women.

Alex Kaley (Division of Health Research) My PhD project is examining the social and psychological wellbeing benefits of participation in community farming projects for adults with Intellectual Disabilities using a qualitative approach and is incorporating a visual and participatory element.

Michael Matulewicz (Division of Health Research) My research is entitled Journeys into the volunteerforce:The self management of Multiple Sclerosis through volunteering for the MS Society and its effect on family and friends. It asks why people with Multiple Sclerosis wish to volunteer for the MS Society and in so doing change from passive recipients of the services of the MS Society into active participants in delivering those services. It seeks to discover if this may be a form of self-managment of their condition and if so what effect, if any, does it have on them along with their family and friends.

Magdalena Szarota (Sociology Department) My PhD thesis takes a feminist disability studies approach to explore the Polish disabled women’s activism since the 1989. I am particularly interested in (1) what is the relationship between disabled women’s activism and disability and feminist movement as well as (2) what impact does the Polish feminist disability activism have on conceptualizing and politicizing the intersection of gender and disability in the post-socialist context.  

Cara Williams (Sociology Department)  My PhD research is focussed upon two issues: first, the nature of support that disabled people experience in the transition to, and in their employment for SMEs, and, second, the attitudes of SME employers to hiring disabled people and their experience of accessing resources to enable this. [ESRC 1+3 Award]

Banner Image: Still from ‘Figures’, performed by Liz Crow (2015). Photo Claudio/Ahlers/Roaring Girl Productions