Part Three – Disability Activism

Part Three (III)

Rights, embodied resistance and disability activism

Chapter Six:

Exercising intimate citizenship rights and (re)constructing sexualities: the new place of sexuality in disability activism

Alan Santinele Martino is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at McMaster University. Alan’s main areas of interest include critical disability studies, gender, sexualities, contemporary social theory, and qualitative research methods. His dissertation examines the romantic and sexual experiences of adults with intellectual disabilities in Ontario and his ‘relationship to disability’ comes in the shape of being a loyal and loving brother of a young man with a developmental disability. Alan has been working closely with community organizations and self-advocacy groups for over a decade and is deeply committed to continuing these collaborations.

To learn more:

You can visit Alan Santinele Martino’s website: http://alanmartino.com/

Read the article, “I don’t know if I can talk about that”: An Exploratory Study on the Experiences of Care Workers Regarding the Sexuality of People with Intellectual Disabilities”: http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/6383

Twitter: @AlanSMartino

Margaret Campbell’s research examines intersections of disability, gender, and sexuality by exploring the varied ways that people with disabilities experience their gender and sexuality. As an individual who lives with a chronic illness, work and identity often collide as she pursues various research interests such as the sociology of the body, disability studies, and the sociology of gender and sexuality. Margaret has taught courses on the Sociology of Disability at Mount Allison University and the Sociology of Gender at Concordia University. Margaret is currently completing her PhD in Social and Cultural Analysis at Concordia University.

To learn more:

Visit Margaret Campbell’s academia page: http://concordia.academia.edu/MargaretCampbell

Read “Disability and Sexual Expression: A Review of the Literature”: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/soc4.12508

Chapter Seven:

I show the life, I hereby express my life’: activism and art in the political debate between social movements and institutions on D/deaf bodies in Italy

Fabrizio Loce-Mandes has a PhD in social anthropology. He has carried out long-term ethnographic fieldwork related to deafness in multiple social spaces, including associations, state institutions, and hospitals, as well as research related to cochlear implants. He has carried out long-term ethnographic fieldwork related to deafness in multiple social spaces, including associations, state institutions, and hospitals, as well as research related to the Cochlear Implant. His interest related to social activism for the Right to Health allowed him to become part of a team that carries out an ethnographic study in an extremely polluted part of Italy. In this context, he realized two short documentaries regarding the health-disease relationship focusing on social movements involved in issues of environmental justice, as well as political and institutional belonging in the area of Brindisi (Puglia, south of Italy). In addition, for many years Fabrizio has served as the Artistic Director of the international anthropological film-festival “Contro-Sguardi” based in Perugia. His role included multiple and complex responsibilities, including planning, coordinating and organizing of international events. In short, throughout the years he managed the different tasks that such a festival implies at all levels. Importantly, these experiences introduced him to a series of prestigious international networks in Visual Anthropology, including the invitation as a speaker in conferences and short courses in Brasil and Russia. He was also a part of the Peasant Activism Project (http://www.peasantproject.org/). Currently, he is coordinator of the project MUSAE – Musei, Uso Sociale e Accessibilità, per contrastare l’Emar-ginazione (Museums, social use and accessibility, to contrast marginalization). The project is co-founded by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia (Dec 2018–Nov 2020), under the Insieme per un Welfare di Comunità grants.

To learn more:

A TEDx Talk by Glenna Cooper about protecting and interpreting Deaf Culture: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=io7z5PftOU4

Articles written in Italian by Fabrizio Loces-Mandes:

https://riviste-clueb.online/index.php/anpub/article/view/20

https://riviste-clueb.online/index.php/anpub/article/view/106/153

Chapter Eight:

Resisting the work cure: mental health, welfare reform and movement against psychocompulsion

Denise McKenna has used mental health services for over 25 years and has been a mental health campaigner for most of this time. She has been involved with Mad Pride, co-founded Mental Health Resistance Network (MHRN) and Four in Ten (an LGBT mental health project), is part of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and has taken part in direct actions with DPAC and MHRN. She instigated a judicial review against the DWP and has spoken at a wide range of events. She is an artist and art historian.

To learn more:

See a video of Denise McKenna speaking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSDeLQxeVUw

Read an article about her campaigning: http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/activist-tells-mental-health-conference-delegates-youre-helping-no-one-but-yourselves/

Paula Peters is a disability rights activist with Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and member of Mental Health Resistance Network (MHRN) in the UK. She is also chair of Bromley and Croydon Unite Community trade union branch and a member of the Labour Party. Paula is a photographer who has extensively documented resistance against the Conservative government mounted by the mental health survivor and disability rights movement. She is also a poet and writer.

To learn more:

Read an article about her campaigning: http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/mind-faces-boycott-call-after-policy-and-campaigns-manager-joins-dwp/

See a video interview with Paula Peters: http://www.facebook.com/disabledpeopleagainstcuts/videos/paula-peters-interview/1112911262074790/

See Paula Peters’ speech at Labour party conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRVR0920ENY

Rich Moth is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work in the School of Social Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK. Before moving into social work education he worked for 15 years in various roles in the social care sector including as a mental health social worker. He has worked alongside activists from the survivor and disabled people’s movements as an ally in a number of mental health, welfare and anti-austerity campaigns. He is a longstanding member of the national steering committee of the Social Work Action Network and an active trade unionist.

To learn more:

You can read more about Rich Moth on a personal website: http://www.hope.ac.uk/si/dr-rich-moth.html

You can access academic publications online: http://lhu.academia.edu/RichMoth

An editor of ‘Resist the Punitive State’ : http://www.plutobooks.com/9780745339511/resist-the-punitive-state/

Twitter: @richmoth

To learn more:

Website of the Mental Health Resistance Network: http://mentalhealthresistance.org/ and their facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/MHResist/

Website of Social Work Action Group: http://socialworkfuture.org/

Website of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC): http://dpac.uk.net/

Video of DPAC protesting against Universal Credit in the UK Parliament: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efSlJGhKXMw

Mad Studies: http://madstudies2014.wordpress.com/

Read an article by Peter Beresford about Mad Studies: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/07/mad-studies-voice-of-sanity-psychiatry

Chapter Nine:

Chapter Nine: My disability, my ammunition, my asset in advocacy work

Tafadzwa Rugoho is a PhD candidate in Department of Sociology at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal in South Africa. He has chapters in two forthcoming books ‘Disability and media: An African perspective’ and ‘Teaching Sexual and Reproductive Health to Adolescence with Disabilities’.

To learn more:

Read “Challenges faced by women with disabilities in accessing sexual and reproductive health in Zimbabwe: The case of Chitungwiza town” : http://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/252

Read ‘The Forgotten Tribe’ about people with disabilities in Zimbabwe: http://www.progressio.org.uk/sites/default/files/Forgotten-tribe.pdf