Images of Disability: Then and Now - a panel discussion

Join us for at Sunderland Minster on the 24th September 6 - 8pm for Images of Disability: Then and Now, a panel discussion with Professor Simon McKeown, Dr Alison Wilde and Dr Rachel Holdforth about representations of disability then and now.
 
Rachel Holdforth (she/her) is a disabled, neurodivergent and queer freelance disability theologian and advocate, printmaker, creative and spiritual director based in Newcastle upon Tyne. After completing a PhD in science, she worked in disability support in higher education before training and serving as a spiritual director and lay chaplain. She has significant experience in spirituality, disability theology and chaplaincy over the past decade in a variety of contexts including social care, workplaces and theological education. You can find out more about her work at wobblygoose.com
 
Professor Simon McKeown is an award-winning internationally exhibiting artist renowned for his work on disability as well as our digital futures. He exhibits internationally and his works, including Motion Disabled which was the first non-medical study of impaired motion, have been exhibited as far afield as the Smithsonian International Gallery in the USA, The DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague, Czech Republic, GAK in Kosovo along with galleries in Australia, Norway, America, South America, the UK, along with the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden, Germany. McKeown holds a PHD and is active in the field of disability and art and is a member of the Steering Group for Liberty Festival, The Mayor of London’s free festival celebrating the work of Deaf and disabled artists as well as being a member of Disconsortia, a North East (UK) disabled artist-led consortium. He has been working on the Hans Würtz collection with an international team, digitising the catalogue of items and curating a selection of the vast archive to go on display in the United Kingdom.

Dr Alison Wilde is an Assistant Professor at Northumbria University and has a strong interest in culture, communications, and disability. She often conducts research on disability, and has worked on a range of social justice issues in activist, academic, and other roles. Alison has written mainly on topics of screen media, disability, gender and audiences, in addition to researching and publishing on disability and educational inclusion, parenting, gender, social and health care. She co-founded both the MeCCSA Disability Studies Network, and the BSA’s Disability Studies Group and occasionally contributes to Disability Arts Online. Her first book on comedy, film and disability was published in 2018.