Podcast: Sara Ryan Keynote: What the fuckwhatery? Disability studies, activism and the continuing denial of the human

Sara Ryan is the Research Director in the Health Experiences Research Group at the University of Oxford. A sociologist, her work focuses on autism, learning disability and difference. More recently she has been involved in the #JusticeforLB campaign. This is an annotated audio recording of the keynote address she did at the 2016 Lancaster University Disabilities Studies conference.

justiceforlb.org

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Culture Bound Syndromes: Contextualising and Historically Locating Mental Illness by Sonia Soans

I still remember the day we went through the ICD- 10 in the clinical psychology class. Our professor, a practicing and competent clinical psychologist, talked us through the various symptoms that constituted a mental illness. Mental illnesses such as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) schizophrenia and depression were assumed to be universal. Extensive studies have been conducted around the world documenting these illnesses. We finally got to the section on culture bound syndromes. Read more…

Recollections of John Pounds: Have you met the Old Cobbler ? By Rev’d Henry Hawkes

A few days after I came to reside at Portsmouth, in the spring of 1833, a lady said to me laughingly, “Have you been introduced to the old cobbler yet ?”. Seeing that I was at a loss to know whom she referred to; “O you must go and see the old cobbler;” she said in a somewhat more serious tone; but mingled with pleasantry’ “He’s a remarkable man’ quite a character! And does a great deal of good, in his own quiet, humble way. Read more…

Interview with an Activist: Mike Cormack and Welfare Reforms

Mike Cormack is involved in Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty. This is an interview with him discussing his work and the issues which he sees at stake particularly as the current welfare reforms are pushed through in the UK. Offering counsel and support to people who receive benefits to understand their rights and resist unfair sanctions, Mike has been involved in activism for many years. Read more…

Making a Prison Film: Injustice by Unsound Robin

To suggest making a film that shines a light on the utter failure of the prison system is to side with those commonly seen as the lowest in our society. Where society has, fortunately, responded in some form to the needs of women, ethnic minorities, non-heterosexuals and other marginalised groups, it seems the lot of a convict remains. There’s no romanticism, little pity and sparse care for those who have fallen into the criminal system. They remain the lowest of the low: they are scum, so people seem to think. Read more…