The Disability Lectures Oxford University

Dr Jessica Boland shares her experiences as a hard-of-hearing/deaf academic in science and technology, and her passion for improving accessibility in higher education. Oxford University Annual Disability Lecture 2023
'Terahertz, Topology and Telecoil Loops: Going beyond standards’

Dr Jessica Boland (https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/jessica.boland) is an award-winning Lecturer and UKRI Future Leader Fellow in electrical engineering at the University of Manchester. She is passionate about improving accessibility in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM). An active member of Tigers in STEMM (https://www.tigerinstemm.org/home), she features in the Royal Society’s series Celebrating scientists with disabilities (https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/diversity-in-science/scientists-with-disabilities/).

Dr Boland details her career journey from a physics undergraduate to an electrical engineering lecturer at the University of Manchester. She shares her experiences as a hard-of-hearing/deaf academic working in STEMM. She discusses pushing beyond standards – both in her research, where she is exploring new topological quantum materials for technology, and in her everyday working life, striving for accessibility in higher education.

To download a transcript of the 2023 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/admin/disability/2023-06-14-admin-2023-disability-boland-TRANSCRIPT.pdf

Transcript - Microsoft Word version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/admin/disability/2023-06-14-admin-2023-disability-boland-TRANSCRIPT.docx

Dr Amy Kavanagh delivers the 2022 Annual Disability Lecture 2022 Disability Lecture
Dr Amy Kavanagh - Hands Off: Navigating unwanted touch, consent and disability

From Dr Kavanagh's introduction:
"So this lecture today is going to be an exploration of the disabled experience of unwanted touch, forced help and consent. I'm drawing on my lived experience as a blind activist, but I am also grateful to the hundreds of disabled people who have shared their stories, reflections and thoughts about their own experiences with me over the years. This lecture draws on the themes and consistent tropes surrounding unwanted touch and forced help. In doing so, I'd hope to draw some parallels between some of the wider challenges of also navigating cultural, social and economic disableism."

To download a transcript of the 2022 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/admin/disability/2022-06-06-adl2022_transcript.pdf

Transcript - Microsoft Word version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/admin/disability/2022-06-06-adl2022_transcript.docx

Dr Hamied Haroon explores the intersections of disability, science and academia. All views expressed in the lecture are the speaker’s own. To download a transcript of the 2021 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/admin/disability/2021-05-24-uas-disability_lecture-haroon-slides.pdf

Dr Kate West, a neurodivergent student-turned-academic, reflects on the neurotypical University. To download a transcript of the 2020 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/admin/disability/2020-05-27_kate_west_annual_transcript.pdf

Jay Abdullahi and Kym Oliver, a team of two black disabled women, reclaim the word ‘cripple’ in their fight against three layers of discrimination. This year’s University of Oxford Disability Lecturers are Jay Abdullahi and Kym Oliver, a team of two black disabled women determined to reclaim the word ‘cripple’ in their fight against three layers of discrimination. Jay is a 29 year old Nigerian Londoner with polio and scoliosis, and Kym is a 32 year old African and Caribbean Black woman who lives in London and has multiple sclerosis. Jay and Kym, The Triple Cripples, aim to increase the visibility and highlight the narratives of women, femmes and non-binary people of colour living with disabilities. Expect hard truths and lots of laughter in a wide-ranging discussion of unconscious bias, racism, and the lived experience of physical disabilities.

The Equality and Diversity Unit and TORCH are delighted to announce that Gwyneth Lewis will give the 2018 Disability Lecture. From Gwyneth Lewis's introduction to her lecture:
"All good education should cause what feels like an intellectual nervous breakdown in the student. Otherwise, the institution isn’t doing its job of challenging them to abandon old ideas and to grow. For the vast majority of students, this is a benign crisis, somewhat stressful, but which can, nevertheless, can be negotiated. What you don’t want is an actual breakdown. Then it is the duty of the university and the NHS to catch the bodies as they fall."

To download a transcript of the 2018 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):
Transcript - PDF version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/humdiv/torch/Poets-Power-Health-Transcript-file.pdf

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