Oxford can be a place where those who are neurodivergent or have mental ill health can often go unseen and unheard. This event on 'Hidden Beneath the Surface: Untold Tales of Neurodivergence and Mental Difference in Oxford' brings together a panel of students, staff, and researchers to address this in two ways. Miranda Reilly will share her experience of creating a Disability Trail for Oxford's museums, helping to bring some of those hidden stories to light. Sonia Boué has undertaken groundbreaking work with the Arts Council to make the mechanisms that fund research accessible so that those stories can make themselves heard. Dan Holloway will talk about the business case for institutions such as Oxford both enabling and supporting individuals in the workforce and removing barriers to recruitment and progression so that all of us can benefit from the value of a mentally diverse workplace.
Speakers:
Miranda Reilly
Miranda Reilly is President of the Oxford Students' Disability Community and founder of SASI (a group for Social Anxiety, Shyness and Introversion); she is currently an English undergraduate at Hertford College with an interest in disability in literature.
Sonia Boué
Sonia specialises in object work, painting, installation, video and performance in an ongoing postmemory project about the Spanish Civil War - BARCELONA IN A BAG.
She also develops and leads creative projects, such as the Arts Council funded Through An Artist's Eye. Recent works include a film collaboration with Tate Britain about the British artist Felicia Browne.
A painterly collaboration with Richard Hunt of the Shadowlight artist group was awarded the Shape Open 2017.
Sonia's new collaborative project is the Arts Council funded Museum for Object Research, which includes a professional development initiative for autistic project leadership.
Dan Holloway
Dan has spent a decade campaigning on issues of debt, mental health, and inclusion, in particular working with the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the financial services sector. He was one of the speakers at the 2017 Disability Lecture and most recently spoke at the Mental Wealth Festival in London on making workplaces places where those with uneven skill sets can thrive.
This event will be chaired by Marie Tidball (Knowledge Exchange Fellow, TORCH, University of Oxford).
Lunch will be available from 12.30pm. Discussion from 1-2pm. Booking is essential. Please register here.
After the talk, there will be an opportunity to view objects related to mental health from the Pitt Rivers Museum’s collections. A number of objects will be made available in the research space and the Museum welcomes attendees to share their thoughts about these objects and to explore with Museum staff the relevance the objects may have to historical, contemporary, global experiences of Neurodivergence. If you would like to attend one of these 20 minute sessions, please indicate this on the registration form as there are limited spaces available.
This event marks World Mental Health Day 2017 and is part of the TORCH Humanities & Identities Series.
To read a transcript of Dan Holloway's talk, please click here.
To read a transcript of Miranda's talk, please click here.
To read a transcript of Sonia's talk, please click here.
Humanities & Identities
Medical Humanities
Audience: Open to all
Media: Hidden Beneath the Surface
