Hello, I’m Emma.
I recently completed my PhD at Edge Hill University, looking at the experiences of pain for people who live with chronic pain and engage in BDSM pain play, with the intention of challenging normative conceptions of pain through a critical crip lens. I looked at how self-control is used in living with pain, and how being disabled and having chronic pain changed their sense of who they are – and how their stories can tell us about how the wider world sees chronic pain. I am also interested in how time plays a part in the experience of being disabled, particularly when it comes to ideas around waiting, resting, and doing – and how pain is an emotional experience.
The Writing and Speaking tab has more about my publications and some links to videos of me speaking. If you’d like to watch me speaking about my research, the Centre for Culture and Disability Studies at Liverpool Hope filmed me giving a seminar presentation on Chronic Pain as an Emotional Experience.
I am disabled – I have lived with fibromyalgia for most of my adult life. This has played a big part in what I research. I explore how my own impairment (and disability) affects how I do my work, as well as the work I do, and I’m interested in how research can be made accessible for both disabled researchers and participants. I am also interested in how to be a better teacher and to make my teaching more accessible to different disabled people.
I currently teach as a Visiting Lecturer at a couple of different universities, teaching undergraduate Sociology. When I’m not teaching or doing research, I knit, sew, crochet, herd greyhounds, and argue with reptiles. I live in South East London.
You can follow me on Twitter and or you can get in touch via email.
The quote to the right is from We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed by Los Campesinos! – one of my favourite songs.
The Ladylike Punk 