Dr. Jen Slater BA (Hons), PhD, PGCLTHE
Reader in Queer Disability Studies and Education
Summary
My research draws on disability, queer, trans and gender studies to consider relationships disability, gender and the body. I am also interested in critical explorations of developmental discourse, issues of access/accessibility and institutional Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy (EDI).
About
My research has taken place through a number of distinct, but related research projects. My 2015 book, Youth and Disability: A Challenge to Mr Reasonable, explores youth and disability as social, cultural and political constructs, alongside gender, sexuality and the body. In this book, I use the fictional character of ‘Mr Reasonable’ to question markers of youth, adulthood, and indeed, disability and ability. Between 2015 and 2018 I led the AHRC-funded Around the Toilet project (www.aroundthetoilet.com). Around the Toilet asked what makes a safe and accessible toilet space, exploring toilets as spaces of exclusion and belonging by centring the experiences of queer, trans and disabled people. The research was collaborative, public-facing and aimed to create outputs that could be used to influence toilet design at a grassroots and practitioner level. As such, as well as journal articles and book chapters, we produced three films (one of which toured international film festivals), a zine and design toolkits (all of which are available on our project blog). In 2016, Around the Toilet was awarded the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s (NCCPE) ‘Engage’ Award for public engagement within the arts, humanities and social sciences. Since 2020 Around the Toilet work has continued under the project title, ‘Beers, Burgers and Bleach: Hygiene, Toilets and Hospitality in the Context of Covid-19’. This ongoing research, funded by the Wellcome Centre, explores the cleaning, maintenance and monitoring work provided by hospitality workers in relation to toilets and toilet access, particular during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, I have begun to think about symbols and tokens of ‘equality, diversity and inclusion’ (EDI) and how these are used by corporations and institutions. Between 2021-2023 I will be carrying out a BA/Leverhulme funded project titled, Institutional rainbowification before, during (and after?) COVID: a case study of HE. This will involved interviewing LGBT+ staff and students, as well as those signed up to institutional allies schemes, to explore the role of the rainbow as a sign of LGBT inclusion in HE. I am a founding member of the Queer Disability Studies Network (https://queerdisabilitystudies.wordpress.com).
I conceptualise ‘education’ broadly through my teaching, asking questions about the relationships between ‘education’, stratification (gender, race, class, sexuality, dis/ability and so on) and transnational capitalism. I am interested in critiquing dominant discourses of ‘development’ as they relate to education, particularly in relation to the individualisation of social inequalities.
Teaching
Sheffield Institute of Education
College of Social Sciences and Arts
I teach in areas broadly related to my research across and number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the Sheffield Institute of Education.
Research
My research focuses on issues of disability, gender and the body. I am also interested in critical explorations of developmental discourse and issues of access/accessibility. My PhD research used a critical disability studies perspectives to explore meanings that we attach to ‘youth’ and ‘adulthood’. More recently, I have led a series of AHRC-funded arts-based projects collectively known as, Around the Toilet. Around the Toilet explores the toilet as an embodied space of exclusion and belonging (https://aroundthetoilet.wordpress.com/). You can read more about my work on my academic blog at jenslater.wordpress.com
Featured Projects
Publications
Journal articles
Slater, J. (2023). Mundanity, fascination and threat: interrogating responses to publicly-engaged research in toilet, trans and disability studies amid a ‘culture war’. The Sociological Review. http://doi.org/10.1177/00380261231167747
Slater, J., & Jones, C. (2021). Toilet signs as border markers: Exploring disabled people’s access to space. International Journal of Disability and Social Justice, 1 (1), 50-72. http://doi.org/10.13169/intljofdissocjus.1.1.0050
Jones, C., & Slater, J. (2020). The toilet debate: stalling trans possibilities and defending ‘women's protected spaces’. The Sociological Review. http://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120934697
Slater, J., Ágústsdóttir, E., & Haraldsdóttir, F. (2018). Becoming intelligible woman: Gender, disability and resistance at the border zone of youth. Feminism and Psychology, 28 (3), 409-426. http://doi.org/10.1177/0959353518769947
Slater, J., & Liddiard, K. (2018). Why Disability Studies Scholars Must Challenge Transmisogyny and Transphobia. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 7 (2), 83-93. http://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v7i2.424
Slater, J., & Liddiard, K. (2018). The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in an Age of Austerity: Resistance, Reclamation and Affirmation. The Review of Disability Studies (RDS): An International Journal, 14 (2). https://www.rdsjournal.org/index.php/journal/article/view/835
Slater, J., & Liddiard, K. (2018). The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in an Age of Austerity: Resistance, Reclamation and Affirmation. The Review of Disability Studies (RDS): An International Journal, 14 (2). https://www.rdsjournal.org/index.php/journal/article/view/835
Slater, J., & Liddiard, K. (2018). “Like, pissing yourself is not a particularly attractive quality, let’s be honest” : learning to contain through youth, adulthood, disability and sexuality. Sexualities, 21 (3), 319-333. http://doi.org/10.1177/1363460716688674
Slater, J. (2017). Becoming women: the embodied self in image culture. Disability & Society, 32 (8), 1286-1288. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2017.1362187
Slater, J., Jones, C., & Procter, L. (2017). Troubling school toilets : resisting discourses of 'development' through a critical disability studies and critical psychology lens. Discourse : Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1-12. http://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2017.1316237
Slater, J., Jones, C., & Procter, L. (2016). School toilets : queer, disabled bodies and gendered lessons of embodiment. Gender and Education, 1-15. http://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1270421
Slater, J. (2016). Book Review: Little vast rooms of undoing exploring identity and embodiment through public toilet spaces. Disability and Society, 31 (3), 439-442. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2016.1141579
Slater, J. (2015). Chronic youth disability, sexuality, and U.S. media cultures of rehabilitation. Disability & Society, 30 (9), 1452-1454. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2015.1062226
Slater, J. (2015). X. Stresses and contradictions of trying to ‘do feminisms’ within the (neo)liberal academy. Feminism & Psychology, 12 (1), 56-60. http://doi.org/10.1177/0959353514562808
Slater, J. (2014). Book review: Feminist Queer Crip by Alison Kafer. Disability and Society, 29 (5), 840-844. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2014.888850
Slater, J. (2012). Youth for sale: using critical disability perspectives to examine the embodiment of ‘Youth’. Societies, 2 (3), 195-209. http://doi.org/10.3390/soc2030195
Slater, J. (2012). Self-advocacy and socially just pedagogy. Disability Studies Quarterly, 32 (1). http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/3033
Slater, J. (2012). Stepping outside normative neoliberal discourse: youth and disability meet – the case of Jody McIntyre. Disability and Society, 27 (5), 723-727. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.686879
Slater, J. (2012). Comment from the Field. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 6 (2), 227-230. http://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2012.18
Pluquailec, J., Slater, J., White, L., & Jones, C. (n.d.). Hospitality work as social reproduction: embodied and emotional labour during Covid-19. Sociology.
Book chapters
Jones, C., Slater, J., Cleasby, S., Kemp, G., Lisney, E., & Rennie, S. (2019). PISSED OFF! Disability activists fighting for toilet access in the UK. In Berghs, M., Chataika, T., & El-Lahib, Y. (Eds.) The Routledge handbook of disability activism. (pp. 219-231). Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Disability-Activism/Berghs-Chataika-El-Lahib-Dube/p/book/9780815349303
Slater, J., & Chapman, E. (2017). Normalcy, Intersectionality and Ableism : teaching about and around ‘inclusion’ to future educators. In Runswick-Cole, K., Curran, T., & Liddiard, K. (Eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies. (pp. 333-349). Palgrave Macmillan UK: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137544452
Slater, J. (2016). The (Normal) Non-Normativity of Youth. In Mallett, R., Ogden, C., & Slater, J. (Eds.) Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane : Precarious Positions. (pp. 14-44). Chester: University of Chester Press: http://storefront.chester.ac.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12_14&products_id=626
Slater, J. (2016). The (Normal) Non-Normativity of Youth. In Mallett, R., Ogden, C., & Slater, J. (Eds.) Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane : Precarious Positions. (pp. 14-44). Chester: University of Chester Press: http://storefront.chester.ac.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12_14&products_id=626
Mallett, R., & Slater, J. (2014). Language. In Disability Studies: A Student's Guide. (pp. 92-94). SAGE Publications Ltd: http://doi.org/10.4135/9781473957701.n29
(2013). Disabled Children's Childhood Studies. Palgrave Macmillan UK: http://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008220
(2013). Youth: Responding to Lives. SensePublishers: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-431-4
Slater, J. (2013). Research with Dis/abled Youth: Taking a Critical Disability, ‘Critically Young’ Positionality. In Disabled Children's Childhood Studies. (pp. 180-195). Palgrave Macmillan UK: http://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008220_14
Slater, J. (2013). Playing Grown-Up. In Youth: Responding to Lives. (pp. 75-91). SensePublishers: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-431-4_6
Slater, J. (n.d.). Research with Dis/abled Youth. In Disabled Children's Childhood Studies. Palgrave Macmillan: http://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008220.0021
Books
Mallett, R., Ogden, C., & Slater, J. (Eds.). (2016). Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane : Precarious Positions. Chester: University of Chester Press. http://storefront.chester.ac.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12_14&products_id=626
Slater, J. (2015). Youth and disability: a challenge to Mr Reasonable. Burlington: Ashgate. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315546001
Reports
Jones, C., White, L., Slater, J., & Pluquailec, J. (2022). Beers, burgers + bleach : hygiene, toilets and hospitality in the time of Covid-19 : final project report 2022. Exeter University. https://aroundthetoilet.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/beers-burgers-bleach-report-web-1.pdf
Slater, J., & Jones, C. (2018). Around the Toilet: a research project report about what makes a safe and accessible toilet space. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Hallam University. http://doi.org/10.7190/9781843874195
Theses / Dissertations
Tobias-Green, K. (2020). Stories from an artinstitution: The writinglives of students withdyslexia. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Slater, J. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00310
Tobias-Green, K. (2020). Stories from an artinstitution: The writinglives of students withdyslexia. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Slater, J. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00310
Internet Publications
Anderson, J. (2021). People just want ‘clean, free toilets with locks’ and ‘don’t mind what gender they are’, experts say. https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/gender-neutral-toilets-public-free-clean-locks-government-ministry-of-housing-1004395
Corby, G. (2020). Why schools need to flush out rotten toilets. https://www.tes.com/magazine/archived/why-schools-need-flush-out-rotten-toilets
Needham, J. (2019). The corporate poo patrol is coming after your precious toilet time. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/battle-toilet-workplace
Parry, C. (2019). Core functions: good practice for museum toilets. [Print Only]. https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/in-practice/2019/11/15112019-core-functions-good-practice-museum-toilets/#:~:text=The%20basics%20At%20the%20very,or%20a%20working%20hand%20dryer
Jones, C., & Slater, J. (2018). Toilet talk: why public loos just aren’t good enough.
Slater, J. (2016). SEND Focus: School toilets teach disabled students that they are "different". https://www.tes.com/news/send-focus-school-toilets-teach-disabled-students-they-are-different
Mills, C., & Slater, J. (2016). Why the A-Level psychology exam is already out of date. https://theconversation.com/why-the-a-level-psychology-exam-is-already-out-of-date-48853
Other publications
Liddiard, K., & Slater, J. (2018). The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in Times of Austerity. Review of Disability Studies: https://www.rdsjournal.org/index.php/journal/issue/view/Vol%2014%2C%20No%202
Liddiard, K., & Slater, J. (2018). The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in Times of Austerity. Review of Disability Studies: https://www.rdsjournal.org/index.php/journal/issue/view/Vol%2014%2C%20No%202
Other activities
I currently supervise the following PhD students: Stephanie Hannam-Swain: Disabled peoples’ conceptualisation and experiences of self-harm Katherine Terrell: Bodies in space, signs in space: Deaf and disabled children’s embodied experiences of education Cathy Soreny: Stories beyond words: Reframing representation of non-normative voices through co-created filmmaking Previous students: Karen Tobias-Green: Narratives of an art institution: the writing experiences of students with dyslexia.