Liminal still? Un-mothering disabled children

In this article we reflect on our experiences as mothers, academics and activists over the last 10 years. We explore the (limited) successes in campaigns for disabled children and young people, and offer an analysis of why such campaigning seems to be stuck in a cycle of failure. We want to move away from traditional approaches to campaigning that rely on story-telling and awareness-raising. Instead, we offer a description of a form of campaigning based on collective action and the ‘disability commons’. This takes an innovative and imaginative approach based on the common humanity of all. Finally, we call for a shift away from the mother–child dyad as the primary site of activism and call for ‘unmothering’ as a way of challenging the individualisation discourse in order to break through silos of temporality and exclusion

Approaches, Strategies and Theoretical and Practice-Based Research Methods to investigate and archive video art:Some reflections from the REWIND projects

This paper will discuss methodologies, approaches and issues, emerging out of three major research projects that have investigated early histories of video art in Europe: REWIND (2004 ongoing), REWINDItalia (2011-2014) and EWVA (2015-2018). The paper will discuss how the projects have engaged with the history of the apparatus, the identity and status of the artworks, preservation methods, and the legacy of these video artworks today. A particular focus will be on semi-structured questionnaires for interviews structured to capture oral histories, memories and recollections, that in some cases would have been otherwise lost to future knowledge and the uncovering of lost artworks and their available documentation. The speakers directly involved in the projects - will discuss solutions, risks and experiences encountered in the projects and future research perspectives for re-covering, collecting, archiving and narrating the histories of early video art in Europe. The paper will discuss also different practice-based research methods, platforms and engagement strategies, including re-installation and re-enactment

Telling stories, hearing stories: The value to midwifery students, Part 2

This article reports on the findings of a narrative inquiry that aimed to explore the value that students place on birth storytelling, and the significant stories that they tell and hear during their midwifery programme. This is the second of two articles and focuses on whether storytelling is valued by students in developing their learning. Purposive sampling of two cohorts of final year midwifery students from one university in the south east of England in 2007 elicited five participants. Two focus groups enabled data collection and seven themes emerged from the data analysis: Validating experiences; stories used as reflection; listening to other students' stories; retold stories; lecturers' humorous stories; not wanting to be judged by mentors when recounting stories; and opportunities for story-sharing. Storytelling appears to assist students to integrate and enhance their experiential learning, particularly on returning from practice placements into the classroom. The findings suggest storytelling is valued by students and does facilitate learning. This study can have implications for students, mentors, midwifery lecturers, others in higher education and for curriculum development