Entering the Door

How do physical limitations affect the mind, and how can you overcome them? Imagine one day you wake up bound by physical limitations. What can you do? My research helps someone realize that having limitations isn’t the end of the world.I myself have restrictions, yet I am defying the odds.My art became integral to helping me overcome limitations; because of this, my thesis research educates others on the reality of living with limitations by helping them connect with their own struggles

Relating to the other: a transpersonal exploration of our internalised experience of difference

The aim of the research was to explore the universal experience of internalised othering utilising creative techniques common to transpersonal psychotherap

In/Visibility of LGBTQ People in the Arab Spring: Making LGBTQ Voices Heard

LGBTQ use of the internet is a growing area of study. However most studies focus mainly on the US and the UK, and none pays much (if any) attention to the experience of LGBTQ people in countries where it is illegal to be LGBTQ. The events of the Arab Spring, significantly, signal the possibility that change may be possible in these countries, yet there seems to be little material on what LGBTQ people in these countries are actually thinking, doing, etc, and in\ud particular what role the internet may be playing in this. This is a research-inprogress paper introducing a project which sets out to make a contribution on these lines, by making their voices heard

Deciphering the 'othering' of Muslims

THE predominant Western view on Islam is very much informed by the orientalist discourse. In order to understand the “othering” of Muslims, we have to go back several centuries and situate the present state of affairs within the Western global/colonial designs. The relegation of Muslims as inferior in relation to the West began when Spain’s Christian monarchy, as one of Christian Europe’s frontiers with the Muslim world, fought a battle to conquer the Islamic side of Spain, better known as Al-Andalus. In 1492, when the Spanish Christian monarchy finally defeated the forces of Al-Andalus, they expelled Jews and Arabs not without its pogroms and massacres. From 1492 onwards, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim were defined on the basis of religious discrimination (praying to the wrong God). The Christian versus Islam struggle articulated the imperial difference, and historically, the expulsion of Arabs and Jews from Christian Spain in the name of “purity of blood” was a proto-racist process. With the onset of the colonial enterprise, however, a full racist perspective was put in motion, and the imperial powers started to characterise Muslims as “uncivilised” and “violent”

There’s More That Binds Us Together Than Separates Us : Exploring the Role of Prison-University Partnerships in Promoting Democratic Dialogue, Transformative Learning Opportunities and Social Citizenship

In this paper we argue that education – particularly higher education (HE) - has the potential to offer socially, economically and culturally transformative learning opportunities–cornerstones of social citizenship. Yet, for prisoners, the opportunity to engage in HE as active citizens is often limited. Using a Freirean model of democratic, pedagogic participatory dialogue, we designed a distinctive prison-University partnership in which prison-based learners and undergraduate students studied together. The parallel small-scale ethnographic study, reported here, explored how stereotypes and ‘Othering’ - which compromise social citizenship - could be challenged through dialogue and debate. Evidence from this study revealed a positive change in ‘de-othering’ attitudes of participants was achieved. Furthermore, participants reported growth in their sense of empowerment, agency, and autonomy–cornerstones of social citizenship. Findings from this study contribute further evidence to the developing body of knowledge on the value of partnerships and dialogue in prison education. We conclude that policy makers, and respective institutions, need to work harder to establish prison-University partnerships, thus providing the space for real talk to take place

Public attitudes towards alcohol control policies in Scotland and England: Results from a mixed-methods study

The harmful effects of heavy drinking on health have been widely reported, yet public opinion on governmental responsibility for alcohol control remains divided. This study examines UK public attitudes towards alcohol policies, identifies underlying dimensions that inform these, and relationships with perceived effectiveness. A cross-sectional mixed methods study involving a telephone survey of 3477 adult drinkers aged 16-65 and sixteen focus groups with 89 adult drinkers in Scotland and England was conducted between September 2012 and February 2013. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to reduce twelve policy statements into underlying dimensions. These dimensions were used in linear regression models examining alcohol policy support by demographics, drinking behaviour and perceptions of UK drinking and government responsibility. Findings were supplemented with a thematic analysis of focus group transcripts. A majority of survey respondents supported all alcohol policies, although the level of support varied by type of policy. Greater enforcement of laws on under-age sales and more police patrolling the streets were strongly supported while support for pricing policies and restricting access to alcohol was more divided. PCA identified four main dimensions underlying support on policies: alcohol availability, provision of health information and treatment services, alcohol pricing, and greater law enforcement. Being female, older, a moderate drinker, and holding a belief that government should do more to reduce alcohol harms were associated with higher support on all policy dimensions. Focus group data revealed findings from the survey may have presented an overly positive level of support on all policies due to differences in perceived policy effectiveness. Perceived effectiveness can help inform underlying patterns of policy support and should be considered in conjunction with standard measures of support in future research on alcohol control policies

Debating critical costume: negotiating ideologies of appearance, performance and disciplinarity

In this article, I present an argument for a proposed focus of ‘critical costume’. Critical Costume, as a research platform, was founded in 2013 to promote new debate and scholarship on the status of costume in contemporary art and culture. We have now hosted two biennial conferences and exhibitions (Edge Hill University 2013, Aalto University 2015). These events have exposed an international appetite for a renewed look at how costume is studied, practised and theorized. Significantly, Critical Costume is focused on an inclusive remit that is interdisciplinary and supports a range of ‘voices’: from theatre and anthropology scholars to working artists. In that regard, I offer an initial argument for how we might collectively navigate this interdisciplinary field of practice with reference to other self-identified critical approaches to art and design. By focusing on an interdisciplinary perspective on costume, my intention is to invite new readings and connections between popular practices, such as Halloween and cosplay, with the refined crafts of theatrical and film professionals. I argue that costume is a vital element of performance practice – as well as an extra-daily component of our social lives – that affords distinct methods for critiquing how appearance is sustained, disciplined and regulated. I conclude by offering a position on the provocation of critical costume and a word of caution on the argument for disciplinarity

Speaking Crisis in the Eurozone Debt Crisis: Exploring the Potential and Limits of Transformational Agonistic Conflict

Agonism as a political theory emphasizes the ontological aspect of conflict in human political interaction. This article aims to shed light on the political practice of agonism – and in doing so on its limits – by viewing 'crisis discourse' as an agonistic political practice. As my analysis of the Dutch Socialist Party and the Freedom Party’s speech in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis shows, crisis discourse aimed to (re)create a ‘people’ and to justify radical change in economic and social structures. Crisis discourse is employed to construct an 'other' that can be based on ethnic and nationalist terms and to justify retroactive application of the law and the stripping of Dutch citizens of their rights. This attention to crisis discourse as an agonistic political practice highlights an unease within agonism itself: where must the agonist accepts limits to the conflict and contestation she so values? The article starts with Chantal Mouffe's answer to this question - her insistence that legitimate conflict must always recognize the shared values of equality and liberty - and proceeds to show that Mouffe's view unnecessarily relies on a deliberative democratic desire for consensus. Other than Mouffe, I draw on Honig’s emphasis of perpetual contestation to propose that the issue of limits can be best answered by reference to the core of agonistic thought: the preservation of the struggle over political norms and processes. It is not shared values or even a shared political space that matters, but that the political space of the ‘people’ – however contested membership therein might be – remains a place that the 'other' can re-ente