“It’s a thing now!” Reflecting on disabled children’s childhood studies

by Professor Katherine Runswick-Cole

It was just over ten years ago that Tillie Curran and I published a paper where we reflected on the principles and possibilities of what we called disabled children’s childhood studies.

Tillie and I went on to edit a book Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies: Critical Approaches in a Global Context and Kirsty Liddiard (School of Education) joined us when we edited the Palgrave Handbook of Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies. So I was really delighted to be invited to give a seminar “It’s a thing now!” Reflecting on disabled children’s childhood studies at the Department of Childhood Studies at Linkoping University. It was lovely to have the chance to talk about disabled children with colleagues in Linköping.

At the same time, I was there to act as the opponent for Rebecka Tiefenbacher’s defence of her thesis: “A Space Away From the Ableist Gaze? Separate Leisure For Children with Neuropsychiatric Disabilities”. Rebecka’s excellent work adds to the growing scholarship in the field of disabled children’s childhood studies.

It is good to see disabled children’s childhood studies expanding both in Linkoping and elsewhere, including here at Sheffield! Dr Antonios Ktenidis (School of Education) and Dr Martina Smith (Social Research Institute) are now Area Editors for Oxford Bibliographies in Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies (Oxford University Press). The bibliographies are already being published and you can check out the School of Education’s Tom Ryan’s entry on learning disabilities and siblings here.

Finally, while I was in Sweden, I managed to find the time to take part in a well-known local custom — fika! So I hope you enjoy the picture of the cardamom bun and coffee (nearly) as much as I enjoyed them!