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6 - Stammering in academia: voice in the management of self and others
- Edited by Nicole Brown, University College London
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- Book:
- Lived Experiences of Ableism in Academia
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 18 December 2021
- Print publication:
- 25 May 2021, pp 111-126
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Summary
Introduction
Scene 1: The interview
Having accepted an interview opportunity to augment his research capacity, Robert found himself sitting in a generic meeting room opposite a panel of three interviewers. Trying to settle into his new surroundings, he awaited their first question.
Interviewer 1: Please can you provide us with a brief overview of your PhD research?
Robert: Yes. N-n-n-not a p-p-prob problem. My reeee-search is in-v-v-v-v-est [pause]. In-v-v invest [intake of breath]. In-v-v [pause]. Investigating thh the [intake of breath].
Robert's internal dialogue: Why did I bother coming to this interview? It was obvious that I would spend the whole time ‘blocking’ – interviews always make my stammer worse. Anyway, I have made it this far, so they must be interested in what I could bring to the position. Just remember to smile, maintain eye contact and, if you do stammer, make sure that you stammer to the best of your ability!
Interviewer 2: Is there anything that we can do to help?
This opening excerpt depicts an experience of the first author, Robert, during a recent exchange with a funding body interview panel. To augment his research capacity, he applied for a Policy Fellowship Scheme and secured an interview for the opportunity. His area of research and the intricacies of the scheme are relatively unimportant here. Rather, it is his experiences as an academic who stammers, how he makes sense of these experiences and the response that he receives from his academic peers – either implicitly or explicitly – that are fundamental to cultivating an academic voice and identity, which are the focus of this chapter.
Voice is a foundational aspect of developing the necessary agency for academic success. Voice can be generated in a variety of forms: from our speech and communication with peers, to our internal dialogue, electronic communication, what others say about us, and our writings and publications. One's voice in its myriad forms facilitates participation in the many activities of professional academic life: delivering conference presentations, teaching responsibilities and workshops; discussing research ideas with peers; carrying out clerical duties; contributing to meetings; and providing a succinct and coherent account of yourself when pursuing career opportunities, such as interviews, academic positions, and promotions.
15 - Working the Hyphens of Artist-Academic-Stakeholder in Co-Creation: a Hopeful Rendering of a Community Organisation and an Organic Intellectual
- Edited by Christina Horvath, University of Bath, Juliet Carpenter, Oxford Brookes University
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- Book:
- Co-Creation in Theory and Practice
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 18 March 2021
- Print publication:
- 09 September 2020, pp 237-252
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Summary
Introduction
Perhaps it is easy to look at a city like Rio de Janeiro and despair. The urban inequalities are nowhere more noticeable than in the city's favelas, where approximately one fifth of the local population lives. Brazil's favelas, like other areas of apparent temporariness and marginality around the world, are fast becoming dominant modes of current urbanity (Davis, 2006). Frenzel (2016) proposed that two discourses commonly shape popular understandings of the favela. The first is a narrative of despair. This narrative recognises that those who live in favelas (the favelados) are situated at the intersection of multiple power formations and inequalities. They experience the stigmatising effects of mainstream media and policy through drug and gang activity, low income levels, unsanitary conditions, lack of education, police brutality, spatial stigmatisation, gender-and sex-based violence, employment and education discrimination, and racism.
The second narrative – which is less prominent – is a narrative of hope. In this narrative, the favela is more of a natural constituent of urbanisation; its spaces are neighbourhoods, sites of the vibrancy of urban life, collective agency, self-reliance, creativity, and entrepreneurialism. The winning of rights and legal positions or increased access to public services are examples of the progress of this narrative. Rio de Janeiro is replete with narratives of both despair and hope (Perlman, 2009). It is on a narrative of hope, and in particular the creative activism in one favela, Santa Marta, that this chapter focuses. Co-Creation is capable of responding to urban stigma through creativity, collectivity, and activism, and thus also capable of generating the narratives of hope, which this chapter develops.
From 2016 to 2019, a team of more than 30 researchers and activists from the EU, Mexico, and Brazil worked together to deliver Co-Creation projects in five cities around the world. Co-Creation is both a methodology and a knowledge project that brings together researchers, artists, and stakeholders in order to produce shared knowledge that can challenge, resist, or modify urban stigmatisation (see Chapter 1). Rio de Janeiro was one case among the five. In 2018, more than 20 researchers from the EU and Mexico, NGO members from the EU, and several researchers from Rio de Janeiro, collaborated with local stakeholders in Santa Marta, a favela in Rio de Janeiro's Zona Sul (South Zone).