We are thrilled to be able to say that in September (11th – 13th, 2018) Living Life to the Fullest will be holding a panel at the 9th Biennial Lancaster Disability Studies conference in the north of England, UK. The conference welcomes disability researchers, academics and activists from around the world, and we are so excited to share the process of our project so far in our panel entitled, Living Life to the Fullest: Arts, Activism and Youth (we share the introduction to our abstract below).

In our panel, The Co-Researcher Collective will offer a debut screening of its short documentary, The Living Life to the Fullest Project (2018; working title). Co-researchers will also explain how the Collective developed, its role, and the expertise it brings as a group of young disabled people co-leading research of this kind. The Co-Researcher Collective will outline its innovative use of on-line methods and, more broadly, the ways in which it is shaping the wider project.

Abstract: Living Life to the Fullest: Arts, Activism and Youth 

In this panel we share our methodological and theoretical journey so far in our narrative and arts-informed ESRC-funded research project, Life, Death, Disability and the Human: Living Life to the Fullest. Our research seeks to forge new understandings of the lives, hopes, desires and contributions of disabled young people with what are classified as having, according to medical language, ‘life-limiting and life-threatening impairments’ (hereby LL/LTIs). We can gauge the values of any society by considering how it treats those people who are the most marginalised and too often disabled young people find themselves on the outskirts of society. This is especially the case for young people with LL/LTIs. And, while we know much about the deaths of young people with LL/LTI, we know relatively little about their everyday lives, ambitions and desires. This invisibility is detrimental to their social and emotional wellbeing, and that of their families, carers and allies. Working alongside our Research Management Team of community research partners, disabled people, parents of disabled children living with LL/LTI, academics, researchers, activists and other supporters, and the Co-Researcher Collective, a core group of young co-researchers living with LL/LTI, we are in the process of co-producing knowledge that seeks to value short(er) lives and respect death as part of the human condition.

The Co-Researcher Collective (represented by Sally Whitney and Emma Vogelmann)

Kirsty Liddiard, Katherine Runswick-Cole, and Dan Goodley, School of Education and iHuman, University of Sheffield

You can find out more about the conference, here.