‘I’ve learned that I function as the sort of interface’: Supporting disabled PGRs to navigate the ‘faceless monster’ of university systems and processes

Bowes-Catton, Helen; O'Connor, Gráinne; O'Dell, Lindsay; Álvarez, Inma; Tipi, Nicoleta and Luck, Rachael (2024). ‘I’ve learned that I function as the sort of interface’: Supporting disabled PGRs to navigate the ‘faceless monster’ of university systems and processes. In: Psychological of Women and Equalities Section Annual Conference 2024, 10-12 Jul 2024, Birmingham, UK.

Abstract

In this paper we present findings from a study of the experiences of disabled postgraduate research students (PGRs) and their supervisors at a UK university. Drawing on Price's theorisation of 'crip spacetime', the paper pays particular attention to the ways in which supervisors of disabled PGRs describe themselves as interfacing between the contrasting temporalities of their students, and the chrononormative demands of university systems. For disabled PGRs and their supervisors, this tension is particularly acute in the context of a statutory and funding landscape where institutional success is measured in terms of timely PhD completions. Our data supports Price’s contention that university systems and processes aimed at improving access for disabled staff and students can have a paradoxical disabling effect via an ‘accommodations loop’ where time-sensitive access needs exist in tension with slow systems and processes.  In this context, supervisors describe their attempts to support students to navigate resist the demands of academic chrononormativity, and advocate for approaches that recognise the instability and unpredictability of crip time.

Plain Language Summary

In this presentation we shared the results of a research project looking at how supervisors support postgraduate research students who have disabilities, chronic health conditions or other additional study needs. The results showed that disabled research students need timely support in order to have equal access to education. But slow systems and processes in universities cause problems for these students.

Universities and their disabled research students have different experiences of and expectations of time. Universities think of time as stable and predictable. Disabled research students experience time as unstable and unpredictable. Supervisors try to support their disabled students to do their research while dealing with the problems that are caused by slow processes, and the conflicts between 'disability time' and 'university time'.

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