[this page will continue to be edited over time, with more information added as/when necessary]
Registration page via the BSA website (register by the end of Thursday, 26th October 2023)
What you can expect – full day event online:
The Symposium will be comprised of our panels of three/four presentations (and an artistic film) each, with discussions at the end of each panel. Most of the presentations will be approx. 10-minute long. There will be 10-minute breaks in-between all panel sessions, and a 45-min lunch break (between around 12.15pm GMT – 1pm GMT). The final (fifth) session of the event will consist of a 40-minute collective discussion around the themes of the Symposium.
The panels do not have titles, as the presentations have been scheduled according to presenters’ own stated preferences and availability, and also taking into account differences in timezones. Some presentations may be pre-recorded and others will be delivered live. The Symposium will not be video-recorded; please feel free to keep videos on or off.
The book of abstracts (also available below) can be accessed as a Word Document here; it can also be accessed as a PDF file here.
The Symposium will be joined by BSL interpreters Max Marchewicz and Jill Henshaw throughout the day, and Brazilian Portuguese interpreters Ali Sargent and Beatriz Miloso in the afternoon. To access interpreters’ videos, please click on the ‘Interpretation’ button at the bottom of the screen (more info on this can be found via Zoom’s own informative pages here for BSL and here for Portuguese interpreting). Live captions will be enabled.
If you are not familiar with Zoom, this page includes training videos you may find useful to follow before attending the Symposium. Also, please note that the Zoom settings from phones and web browsers are more limited (in terms of the features you can access) than those of the Zoom application/program on laptops/computers.
On Friday, 27th October, all attendees will receive an email from the BSA with the following resources:
- a link to an editable Google Doc for collective note-taking that will be available to all attendees on the day;
- a link to a Google Folder with presenters’ notes/slides that will be available ahead of the event;
- a link to an editable Google Doc for sharing social media accounts (to facilitate further networking);
- a link to an editable Google Doc for those who join the event later in the day (the introductions to each part of the event will be posted by the organiser in this document, so attendees who join in later can get up to speed quickly);
- a link to a Wordcloud page to which attendees will be encouraged to contribute; the themes that emerge from it will inform the last session of the day.
Please feel free to join, leave, and rejoin the Symposium whenever is best for you. If you have any suggestions for ways in which the Symposium could be more accessible, please email Ioana.
If you live outside the UK, you may find this timezone converter useful. Please note that all the timings on this page refer to GMT (London).
Code of Conduct: This event seeks to offer a supportive environment for all (presenters, audience members, and other participants) to contribute to and learn from collective thinking and action related to the themes of this Symposium.
During the Q&As and the last session, please prioritise posing clear, direct, and concise questions. Typing your question may help increase clarity, as well as naming the person whom you would like to answer it. If your question has more than one part, please consider breaking it down into shorter questions to be asked in part. Alternatively, please prioritise one question and submit the rest via this Online Form during or after the event.
Critique should be respectful and constructive. Disablist, racist, transphobic, queerphobic, sexist, ageist, and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
After the event:
- Asking further questions: if you wish to direct a question or comment at a particular presenter but don’t get the chance to have the question answered at the event, please use this Question Form to submit it between Wednesday, 1st November – Friday, 10th November (11:59pm GMT). The Symposium organiser will forward your comment/question to the relevant presenter(s). Please note that the presenters will reserve the right to decide which questions they wish to address.
- Feedback: If you wish to share feedback about your experience of being a presenter or audience member of this event, please complete this post-event feedback form. The form will close on Friday, 10th November (11:59pm GMT).
Order of activities on the day
The Zoom room opens to all presenters from 9:00am GMT (to say ‘hi’ and check tech).
The Zoom room opens to the rest of the audience at 9:15am GMT. The event itself starts at 9:30am GMT.
Panel One – 9:30 – 10:50 (80 mins)
Introduction to the Symposium (Ioana)
Ioana Cerasella Chis
Moving beyond the Rest-Work Dichotomy Through the Lens of Disability Politics: Rest as a Collective Necessity
Becca Jiggens
Rest, Disability and Work: Applying Diffractive Analysis to Counter Disabling Hermeneutical Injustice in the Justice System
Yishuai DING, Xuan YI, Yiqi Hu
Rethinking the Spatial Exclusion and Disability Politics: A Case Study Based on Rest Infrastructures in Beijing Museums
Natalie Jarvis
Exploring Experiences of Disabled Volunteers: An Interpretative Phenomenological Pilot Study
Discussion (20 mins)
10-minute break – 10:50 – 11:00
Panel Two – 11:00 – 12:15 (75 mins)
Introduction to the panel members
Anat Greenstein
Rest Against the Machine: Using the Perspective of Disability to Develop Radical Minor Politics (the paper will not be delivered on this occasion)
Bob Williams-Findlay
Approaching Rest, Work, and Activism as Sites of Struggle
Samriddhi Singh
The Concept of Rest and Work through the Disabled Bodyminds in Select Indian Science Fictions: Technological Advancements and their Effects
Barbara Neukirchinger
“Pull Yourself Together” – The Need for a Collective Awareness of Rest and Crip Time in Political Activism Using the Example of a Community Radio Station in Germany
Discussion (20 mins)
45-minute lunch break – 12:15 – 13:00
Panel Three – 13:00 – 14:25 (85 mins)
Introduction to the panel members
Heather Davidson
Sometimes You Just Want to Lie in Bed and Eat Crisps… How We Struggle to Relax and Rest as Disabled & Neurodivergent Activists
Cátia Brito dos Santos & Luciana Viegas Caetano
The Experience of Black Activists with Disabilities in Fighting Violence and the Importance of Rest As an Activism Strategy
Richard Downes
Sleep
Steve Graby
Rest and Prefiguration through Disabled People’s Co-operatives
Discussion (20 mins)
10-minute break – 14:25 – 14:35
Panel Four – 14:35 – 15:55 (80 mins)
Introduction to the panel members
Raia Small
Disability as Refusal of Work in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Debilitation, Exhaustion, and Autonomism
Daniel P. Jones
Hidden Labour and Tourette Syndrome: The Restless Cycle of Misinformation, Stigma, and Pressured Awareness-Raising
Fiona Crouch
‘Let Nothing Perish’: Can a Conservative Heritage Site Present Radical Opportunities for Engaging Neurodivergent Audiences?
Arianna Introna
A Dismodernist Reading of Paul Lafargue’s ‘The Right to Be Lazy’: For Monstrous Anti-Capitalist Modes of Resistance and Solidarity
Discussion (20 mins)
10-minute break – 15:55 – 16:05
Free discussion and action points – 16:05 – 16:50 (45 mins)
16:05 – 16:45 – free discussion, announcements and action points.
16:45 – 16:50 – closing remarks.
Rest, Activism, and Work through the lens of Disability Politics (a BSA PGR Symposium) - 1st Nov. 2023 