I never thought that I would run my own symposium. And a few days ago, that’s exactly what happened. It started with a conversation between three PhD students. Robin asked, “I’m thinking of doing a mad/crip/critical disability conference, do you want to help out?” Fraedan and I, like the nerds we are, said “yes”.

On 11^th June, Robin Skyer, Fraedan Mastrantonio and I led a hybrid symposium entitled The Intersections of Sociology with Crip Theory, Critical Disability Studies and Mad Studies Symposium. The symposium was designed for post-graduate researchers engaging with or interested in these intersections and consisted of keynote speakers, panels, a roundtable discussion and a community-based creative workshop that ran throughout the day.

We were honoured to be joined by people who work within sociology, within the academy and outside of it. And there was plenty of lived experience in the room too.

Dr Ben Walters and the Badge Café were with us throughout the day and added a space for attendees to reflect, process and commune, creatively. Badge Café sees badgemaking as “a refuge, a playground, a laboratory and a launchpad – a place where self-care, social connection, analogue crafting, artistic exploration and progressive civics meet.” The Badge Café was a great opportunity for people to network and share time together in a low-pressure (and very fun!) way.

“Creating badges was a wonderful reminder of how regulating art can be and that I don’t have to be at my lowest point to engage in creative pursuits.”

Dr. Robert Chapman shared their work on Revolutionary Madness: The Ranters as Mad and Neuroqueer Ancestors. This was followed by an amazing panel including talks on Eugenics Tech-Capitalism and the Politics of Existential Risk; Research Failure, Crip Temporalities and Bi-polar Time in UK HE, by Dr. Suzanne Glover, Dr. R Sanchez-Rivera and Dr. Lizzie Reed, respectively.

Jessica Dark, Priscilla Eyles, and David Gray-Hammond formed a roundtable discussion on “Mad Studies and Knowledge Creation Inside and Outside of the Academy”. They explored the shift from diagnostic labels towards neuro trait interaction, trauma-informed care for cult recovery work, and a possibility of psychosis as liberatory praxis.

“This event has felt like home.”

The third session included presentations on Decolonising Disability Studies; (Un)Desiring Development: Disabled Childhoods as Sites of Intervention and Resistance; Crip Aesthetics / Crip Knowledge / Crip Methodologies for Social Science; and Trans Disabled Solidarity and Identity Formation on Social Media. Dr. Rosamund Greiner, Dr. Antonios Ktenidis, Dr. Jana Melkumova-Reynolds, and Christian J Harrison attended this panel.  

“Super well done this is fabulous! I like knowing we will have a recording too and all the PDF scripts. The pre-event info had been so useful – just saying thanks!”

To round off the day Dr. Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril spoke on Brokering Crip Knowledge Under Epistemic Domination. Élaina invited us all to reflect and ask, is testimony ever evidence? Who do we go to when we need anchoring? And how do we relate to our methodology? A great ending to a very informative, fun and interesting event.

Thanks

This event was supported by Beyond Reflections, Elinor Lim, Maria Rolfe and Bobbi Elman. BSL interpreters Dianne Lawrence and Crissy Dommett, and Dr Ben Walters’ Badge Café.

This event was funded by: British Sociological Association, SCDTP Activity Fund, and the University of Southampton Doctoral College Fund.

I want to thank all the speakers who shared their time, energy, knowledge and passion with us. I also want to thank the attendees who engaged with interest, asked questions and added comments online and in the room. I know these sentiments are echoed by Robin and Fraedan.