Armineh Soorenian
I am an independent researcher and my research interests include inclusive education, Disability Arts and representations, Disability and gender, Disability hate crime, intersectionality and the experiences of Disabled academics. In November 2013, my book ‘Disabled International Students in British Higher Education: Experiences and Expectations’ was published by Sense Publishing House. The book was based on my PhD research, which I completed in the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds in November 2011. Subsequently I have published articles in international journals such as ‘Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research’ and ‘Malta Review of Educational Research’. I have also contributed to several collected edition books as well as various UN initiatives.
To date, I continue with researching, publishing, campaigning, lecturing and delivering workshops specifically on inclusive education topics. In May 2018, I was recruited by the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) to lead a project on the effectiveness of schools’ Accessibility Plans funded by the Disability Research on Independent Living and Learning (DRILL) grants programme.
Supervisors: Dr Alison Sheldon and Professor Colin Barnes
To date, I continue with researching, publishing, campaigning, lecturing and delivering workshops specifically on inclusive education topics. In May 2018, I was recruited by the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) to lead a project on the effectiveness of schools’ Accessibility Plans funded by the Disability Research on Independent Living and Learning (DRILL) grants programme.
Supervisors: Dr Alison Sheldon and Professor Colin Barnes
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Reports
The aim was to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of disabled people, to identify problems that could be resolved through policy changes and to make the changes necessary that would lead to positive outcomes.
This research will not only feed into short-term responses to COVID-19, it will also be considered regarding policies within the Disability Unit’s National Strategy for Disabled People and long-term planning efforts regarding possible future pandemics.
Lived experience refers to knowledge acquired through direct, first hand and personal experience. This is essential with regard to disabled people as the variety of impairments makes assumptions about them problematic.
The aims of the research were to:
inform cross-cutting policy development and policy announcements
enable policies developed for disabled people reflecting their lived experiences
help inform the government how to better integrate departmental policies and services
This research was conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and a follow up to this project looks at the effects of COVID-19 on disabled people’s everyday lives.
The submission has identified a number of restrictions disabled people face with respect to their economic and social rights (as set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), particularly the impact of austerity measures on their rights to enjoyment and exercise.
Among other things, SoF has expressed concerns about increasing institutionalisation of disabled people, as a result of the lack of adequate housing strategies. It also warned that the cuts to Access to Work funding and Employment Support Allowance have led to further marginalisation of disabled people.
Finally, the submission focuses on Article 10 of the ICESCR – on the protection of family, mothers and children. It sets out barriers faced by disabled women and, of those, disabled women from black and ethnic minority (BME) backgrounds, calling for an amendment to the Serious Crime Act 2015.
Books
For The Future Generations of International Students' (edited by Chris R. Glass and Krishna Bista)
This chapter discusses the complexities associated with genuine accessible and inclusive internationalised higher education (HE) practices. With the diversification of international student populations, it is more crucial than ever to ensure that university policy and practice is compliant, and responsive to students' diverse needs relating to multiplicity of identity. Practices, which may on the surface appear to be inclusive of international students, may not be accessible in reality to those who also belong to one or more other minority groups. This chapter will therefore consider the application of some ‘inclusive’ practice insights that accommodate diversity of international students’ needs. The conclusion highlights the benefits of all-encompassing inclusive practices and the resulting wider implications for the student population at large.
The publication is part of the EDF and EDF Research Network’s wider joint initiative Beyond 2015: Shaping the Future of Equality, Human Rights and Social Justice, consisting of a conference in February 2015, an online portal of resources, and this publication.
Disability studies scholars and activists have long criticised and critiqued so-termed ‘charitable’ approaches to disability where the capitalisation of individual disabled bodies to invoke pity are historically, socially, and politically circumscribed by paternalism. Disabled individuals have long advocated for civil and human rights in various locations throughout the globe, yet contemporary human rights discourses problematically co-opt disabled bodies as ‘evidence’ of harms done under capitalism, war, and other forms of conflict, while humanitarian non-governmental organisations often use disabled bodies to generate resources for their humanitarian projects.
It is the connection between civil rights and human rights, and this concomitant relationship between national and global, which foregrounds this groundbreaking book’s contention that disability studies productively challenge such human rights paradigms, which troublingly eschew disability rights in favour of exclusionary humanitarianism. It relocates disability from the margins to the center of academic and activist debates over the vexed relationship between human rights and humanitarianism. These considerations thus productively destabilise able-bodied assumptions that undergird definitions of personhood in civil rights and human rights by highlighting intersections between disability, race, gender ethnicity, and sexuality as a way to interrogate the possibilities (and limitations) of human rights as a politicised regime.
Contents: Introduction: protesting ‘the hardest hit’: disability activism and the limits of human rights and humanitarianism, Michael Gill and Cathy J. Schlund-Vials; The promise of human rights for disabled people and the reality of neoliberalism, Mark Sherry; The new humanitarianism: neoliberalism, poverty, and the creation of disability, Maria Berghs; Media, disability, and human rights, Armineh Soorenian; Volunteering as tribute: disability, globalization and The Hunger Games, Anna Mae Duane; Structural and cultural rights in Australian disability employment policy, Sarah Parker Harris, Randall Owen and Karen R. Fisher; Disability in humanitarian emergencies in India: towards an inclusive approach, Vanmala Hiranandani; Monitoring disability: the question of the ‘human’ in human rights projects, Tanya Titchkosky; The specter of vulnerability and disabled bodies in protest, Eunjung Kim; Persons with disabilities in international humanitarian law - paternalism, protectionism or rights?, Janet E. Lord; United Nations policy and the intersex community, Ethan Levine; HIV/AIDS, disability and socio-economic rights in South Africa, Lydia Apon Strehlau; The overrepresentation of Black children in special education and the human right to education, Jennifer Bronson; ‘Becoming disabled’: towards the political anatomy of the body, Nirmala Erevelles; Index.
Disability Studies has established itself as an increasingly important discipline in its own right, pushed forward by disabled people and their allies. This book contributes to the field, by providing original and exciting insights and perspectives from newcomers.
A selection of papers presented at the ‘Centre for Disability Studies Postgraduate Research Student Conference’, held at the University of Leeds, are documented here. The nine chapters in this book detail both emergent areas of theoretical and empirical enquiry and address issues such as: access to education, the affirmation model, anorexia nervosa, international perspectives of disability, notions of ‘perfect sex’ and sociologies of impairment. This book will therefore be of interest to those concerned with cutting edge research in Disability Studies and related fields.
This title is available for purchase (using a credit or debit card) at our online store.
Contents
Introduction: Emerging Insights and Perspectives within Disability Studies – Laura Hemingway
Further Towards an Affirmation Model – Colin Cameron
A Case for the Sociology of Impairment – Thomas Campbell
Coming Out Softly: An Exploration of ‘Erectile Dysfunction’ from Augustine to Scorsese – Paul Dawson
In Search of a Flexible Model of Disability: Germany and the Disability Rights Movement – Pauline Eyre
Early and Current Approaches to Disability in Portugal: a Brief Overview – Fernando Fontes
The Suffering Body in the Cultural Representations of Disability: The Anguish of Corporal Transgression – Bruno Martins
The Significance of Studying Disabled International Students’ Experiences in English Universities – Armineh Soorenian
Male Anorexia Nervosa: Risk, Subjectivity and Disability – Chris Till
Papers
The aim was to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of disabled people, to identify problems that could be resolved through policy changes and to make the changes necessary that would lead to positive outcomes.
This research will not only feed into short-term responses to COVID-19, it will also be considered regarding policies within the Disability Unit’s National Strategy for Disabled People and long-term planning efforts regarding possible future pandemics.
Lived experience refers to knowledge acquired through direct, first hand and personal experience. This is essential with regard to disabled people as the variety of impairments makes assumptions about them problematic.
The aims of the research were to:
inform cross-cutting policy development and policy announcements
enable policies developed for disabled people reflecting their lived experiences
help inform the government how to better integrate departmental policies and services
This research was conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and a follow up to this project looks at the effects of COVID-19 on disabled people’s everyday lives.
The submission has identified a number of restrictions disabled people face with respect to their economic and social rights (as set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), particularly the impact of austerity measures on their rights to enjoyment and exercise.
Among other things, SoF has expressed concerns about increasing institutionalisation of disabled people, as a result of the lack of adequate housing strategies. It also warned that the cuts to Access to Work funding and Employment Support Allowance have led to further marginalisation of disabled people.
Finally, the submission focuses on Article 10 of the ICESCR – on the protection of family, mothers and children. It sets out barriers faced by disabled women and, of those, disabled women from black and ethnic minority (BME) backgrounds, calling for an amendment to the Serious Crime Act 2015.
For The Future Generations of International Students' (edited by Chris R. Glass and Krishna Bista)
This chapter discusses the complexities associated with genuine accessible and inclusive internationalised higher education (HE) practices. With the diversification of international student populations, it is more crucial than ever to ensure that university policy and practice is compliant, and responsive to students' diverse needs relating to multiplicity of identity. Practices, which may on the surface appear to be inclusive of international students, may not be accessible in reality to those who also belong to one or more other minority groups. This chapter will therefore consider the application of some ‘inclusive’ practice insights that accommodate diversity of international students’ needs. The conclusion highlights the benefits of all-encompassing inclusive practices and the resulting wider implications for the student population at large.
The publication is part of the EDF and EDF Research Network’s wider joint initiative Beyond 2015: Shaping the Future of Equality, Human Rights and Social Justice, consisting of a conference in February 2015, an online portal of resources, and this publication.
Disability studies scholars and activists have long criticised and critiqued so-termed ‘charitable’ approaches to disability where the capitalisation of individual disabled bodies to invoke pity are historically, socially, and politically circumscribed by paternalism. Disabled individuals have long advocated for civil and human rights in various locations throughout the globe, yet contemporary human rights discourses problematically co-opt disabled bodies as ‘evidence’ of harms done under capitalism, war, and other forms of conflict, while humanitarian non-governmental organisations often use disabled bodies to generate resources for their humanitarian projects.
It is the connection between civil rights and human rights, and this concomitant relationship between national and global, which foregrounds this groundbreaking book’s contention that disability studies productively challenge such human rights paradigms, which troublingly eschew disability rights in favour of exclusionary humanitarianism. It relocates disability from the margins to the center of academic and activist debates over the vexed relationship between human rights and humanitarianism. These considerations thus productively destabilise able-bodied assumptions that undergird definitions of personhood in civil rights and human rights by highlighting intersections between disability, race, gender ethnicity, and sexuality as a way to interrogate the possibilities (and limitations) of human rights as a politicised regime.
Contents: Introduction: protesting ‘the hardest hit’: disability activism and the limits of human rights and humanitarianism, Michael Gill and Cathy J. Schlund-Vials; The promise of human rights for disabled people and the reality of neoliberalism, Mark Sherry; The new humanitarianism: neoliberalism, poverty, and the creation of disability, Maria Berghs; Media, disability, and human rights, Armineh Soorenian; Volunteering as tribute: disability, globalization and The Hunger Games, Anna Mae Duane; Structural and cultural rights in Australian disability employment policy, Sarah Parker Harris, Randall Owen and Karen R. Fisher; Disability in humanitarian emergencies in India: towards an inclusive approach, Vanmala Hiranandani; Monitoring disability: the question of the ‘human’ in human rights projects, Tanya Titchkosky; The specter of vulnerability and disabled bodies in protest, Eunjung Kim; Persons with disabilities in international humanitarian law - paternalism, protectionism or rights?, Janet E. Lord; United Nations policy and the intersex community, Ethan Levine; HIV/AIDS, disability and socio-economic rights in South Africa, Lydia Apon Strehlau; The overrepresentation of Black children in special education and the human right to education, Jennifer Bronson; ‘Becoming disabled’: towards the political anatomy of the body, Nirmala Erevelles; Index.
Disability Studies has established itself as an increasingly important discipline in its own right, pushed forward by disabled people and their allies. This book contributes to the field, by providing original and exciting insights and perspectives from newcomers.
A selection of papers presented at the ‘Centre for Disability Studies Postgraduate Research Student Conference’, held at the University of Leeds, are documented here. The nine chapters in this book detail both emergent areas of theoretical and empirical enquiry and address issues such as: access to education, the affirmation model, anorexia nervosa, international perspectives of disability, notions of ‘perfect sex’ and sociologies of impairment. This book will therefore be of interest to those concerned with cutting edge research in Disability Studies and related fields.
This title is available for purchase (using a credit or debit card) at our online store.
Contents
Introduction: Emerging Insights and Perspectives within Disability Studies – Laura Hemingway
Further Towards an Affirmation Model – Colin Cameron
A Case for the Sociology of Impairment – Thomas Campbell
Coming Out Softly: An Exploration of ‘Erectile Dysfunction’ from Augustine to Scorsese – Paul Dawson
In Search of a Flexible Model of Disability: Germany and the Disability Rights Movement – Pauline Eyre
Early and Current Approaches to Disability in Portugal: a Brief Overview – Fernando Fontes
The Suffering Body in the Cultural Representations of Disability: The Anguish of Corporal Transgression – Bruno Martins
The Significance of Studying Disabled International Students’ Experiences in English Universities – Armineh Soorenian
Male Anorexia Nervosa: Risk, Subjectivity and Disability – Chris Till
Inclusive Education to international student populations in higher
education (HE). It provides a glimpse into an example of teaching
practice, namely a workshop on experiences and expectations of
disabled international students in HE, organized by the second author.
By referring to the notion of bridging, it reflects how various
understandings of what disability is, can be linked up and made fruitful
in the classroom. The proposal of this article is twofold: for the
theorization of disability, that a variant of ‘Comparative and International
Disability Studies’ shall come into being; and for the practice of inclusion
in HE, that the time is ripe for a concrete and constructive discussion
about the access, participation and educational achievement of
international students with disabilities in universities abroad, as well as
about appropriate forms of assistance for their mobility.
The conclusion suggests some practical alternatives. The flexible and creative insights are highlighted in order to improve the PA service provision and work towards bringing about a more inclusive university environment for disabled students with a wide range of needs.
Design/methodology/approach
Thus, the author will visit the debates surrounding the two contrasting models of “disability”, namely the individual medical model and the social model of “disability”. The associated advantages and disadvantages will be examined.
Findings
This paper will conclude by offering inclusive solutions to disclosure, which are sensitive to both impairment and cultural-related issues and encourage disclosure from students with a wide range of impairments. The benefits of all-encompassing inclusive practice and the resulting wider implications for the student population at large will therefore be highlighted.
Originality/value
There is an acute shortage of similar kinds of research conducted on disabled international students’ experiences of disclosure, which makes the current work timely and original.
There is also a video link to the presentation attached.
The webinar consisted of two parts:
(1) Blog posts, read beforehand by attendees and panellists (link attached)
(2) Four short Q&A panels during a live webinar, with questions submitted beforehand and a few live questions, which took place on Zoom.
Presentation delivered at the project launch event in London on 23rd January 2020.
The conference brought together some of the authors and contributors, over eight sessions, to demonstrate the importance of understanding the intended teaching and learning approach of students and staff before thinking about the physical design of their schools and classrooms.
The end debate session was entitled 'Designing inclusive learning environments' and explored whether the new visions for education provide a learning environment which is truly inclusive.
I participated in this conference panel debate as a representative of the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE).
The violence of the neoliberal system which often takes the form of expected high productivity in compressed timeframes, fading support structures and transparent career paths are felt more acutely by the disabled academic community. In this way, the disavowal and suppression of disabled staff and students’ voices is reinforcing the legitimisation of the complex webs of structural inequalities pervading academic institutions. Even the field of Disability Studies is replete with disabling barriers and is somewhat removed from employing or working with disabled academics, especially those with high support needs.
I will end the presentation by offering some insights which can help work towards the creation of an inclusive academia for all disabled researchers and scholars.
Much has changed over recent years with regards to widening participation in higher education (HE). Yet, Western mainstream education remains unequal and discriminatory. This is reinforced by the fact that in the current ‘integrated’ university education system it is both justifiable and necessary to provide additional support and alternative modes of teaching.
To demonstrate this I will firstly discuss how the disabling features of a conventional university environment can create obstacles for disabled students’ access and participation in university life. Secondly I will identify a range of barriers that international students often face when studying in the UK HE. The overlapping difficulties that students who belong to more than one minority group may experience in this inflexible education system will then be highlighted.
Subsequently the benefits and opportunities that an inclusive university system can provide will be presented. I will share some insights which can contribute towards creating an inclusive education framework, where all students will feel welcomed and accommodated regardless of their age, gender, impairment or nationality. Such a system must reject the biological and cultural determinism that underpins the elitist education structure. Inclusive education is fundamentally about understanding and engaging with difference in constructive and valued ways, maximising participation for all concerned. Ultimately the empowering effects of inclusive education have the potential of benefiting not only individual learners but also transforming attitudes and positively impacting on society at large.
This presentation recognises that the British Coalition Government’s reform of public funding disproportionately affects disabled women, and is in breach of the Equality Act (2010). Based on a literature and policy review, I will discuss the three key disability and gender discriminatory areas of income and benefits, media representation, and disability hate crime.
According to Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) without access to financial resources, disabled people’s human rights are markedly at risk. Yet the current welfare system assumes that disability benefits/services have been ‘too generous’, reinforcing unnecessary ‘dependency’. Today, disability and income related benefits are being granted under more stringent conditions as well as imposing sanctions in order to incentivise people ‘off welfare and into work’. This specifically forces many disabled women to stay in abusive relationships and endure hardship.
Furthermore, the media is reinforcing such inequalities and the prevailing prejudice by maintaining the stereotyped image of disabled women as ‘dependent’ and ‘pitiful’. By using such pejorative language, disabled people in general, and disabled women in particular, are stigmatised and falsely labeled as, at worst, outright ‘benefit scroungers’ and, at best, social burdens who are unable to contribute to society in any meaningful way.
This has contributed to a highly inflammatory atmosphere, associated with the prejudicial ideological message of demonising disabled people, and has resulted in a number of high profile cases of disabled women being subjected to violent attacks. The climate of fear is certainly working; with some disabled women frightened to leave their homes because of physical threats and accusations of benefit frauds.
The concluding remarks will highlight that the intersectionality of ‘disability’ and ‘gender’ doubly disadvantages disabled women in these three inter-related areas. The exaggerated effect of the current austerity measures is having a drastically negative impact on their fundamental human rights identified in the UNCRPD, leading to the erosion of their independence, freedom and inclusion.
For Disability and Society.
Berghs, M., Chataika, T. and El-Lahib, Y. (eds.) (2019), The Routledge Handbook of Disability Activism. Routledge.
My contributory chapter:
Soorenian, A., ‘At the margins of academia – on the outside, looking in: refusing, challenging and dismantling the material and ideological bases of academia’.