SELECTED RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
The Mad Professor: Coming Out as a Graduate Student Instructor with a Psychiatric Disability.
Gibbons, H. M. (2015)
Part of a Panel Presentation: Coming Out/Right: Navigating the Complex Territory of Disability Disclosure as Women and Emerging Scholars.
Gibbons, H. M. (2015)
Part of a Panel Presentation: Coming Out/Right: Navigating the Complex Territory of Disability Disclosure as Women and Emerging Scholars.
In this presentation, I explore the tensions present in coming out as a female instructor with a psychiatric disability in an undergraduate Disability Studies course. Instructors are presumed to be authoritative figures and experts who command students’ respect. Coming out places me at risk for being disrespected by some students, as mental disabilities are associated with a lack of rhetoricity, or a “failure to make sense, as measured against and by those with ‘normal minds’ (Price, 2011, p. 26). To be denied rhetoricity is to be denied expertise, which is viewed as essential to university instruction. Consequently, instructors with mental disabilities are expected to “pass,” a pressure fueled by the belief that “unsound minds have no place in the classroom” (Price, 2011, p. 33). As a young woman, I already receive messages that I do not deserve respect in the classroom - for instance, when a group of men in my class were commenting on my body and objectifying me. To add to this marginalization by disclosing feels dangerous. Yet, coming out allows me to be more authentic, particularly in a Disability Studies course. It also helps me better support disabled students, many of whom are also have psychiatric disabilities and are trying to work within an ableist university environment. After I disclosed that I am disabled and, as a graduate student, use accommodations, I had multiple students share that they felt more comfortable disclosing their disabilities and registering with UIC’s Disability Resource Center. Several also asked for advice on how to navigate being a student with a mental disability. Thus, in this particular course, disclosure was a risky yet also empowering experience. However, as an emerging scholar, I will likely need to deal with disability disclosure differently as the classroom context changes and my role in the university evolves.
*Presented at the Society for Disability Studies Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA.
*Presented at the Society for Disability Studies Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA.
| gibbons-10.5-sds.docx |
Conceptualizing Dementia as a Disability: Using a Disability Studies Lens to Explore Intersections of Age and Disability.
Gibbons, H. M. (2015)
Gibbons, H. M. (2015)
Older adults and people with disabilities are two groups that are increasingly intersecting. Despite this, the interdisciplinary fields of gerontology and disability studies continue to be, for the most part, disparate. As more people age into disability and more people with congenital or early-onset disabilities age, it will become progressively important for these two fields to collaborate. For instance, dementia highlights the myriad ways disability and age intersect. Gerontology and other scholars in aging studies have largely led the way in studying dementia, and have been among the leaders who have called for society to change the way we view and act toward people with dementia. Conversely, disability studies has been essentially uninvolved in this scholarship, despite the fact that dementia is the leading cause of impairment in older adults. As a result, dementia provides an interesting “case study” to demonstrate how disability studies and gerontology might inform one another. In this paper, I explore how analyzing dementia through a critical disability studies lens might open up new possibilities for the way people with dementia are conceptualized and treated and might contribute to the existing gerontological literature. I first briefly discuss current discourse on dementia. Then, I examine dementia using four theories and frameworks in disability studies: the social model of disability, the political/relational model of disability, crip time, and rhetoricty. Lastly, I discuss how using perspectives from both disability studies and gerontology might aid scholars in better understanding how age and disability intersect in regards to dementia and other disabilities in later life.
*Presented at the North American Network in Aging Studies Conference in Oxford, OH.
*Presented at the North American Network in Aging Studies Conference in Oxford, OH.
| gibbons-nanas-2015.docx |
Exposure to Dementia: Capturing Students' Attitudes and Perceptions through Service-Learning
Manning, L. K., & Gibbons, H. M. (2010)
This study explores and examines the impact of intergenerational interaction between individuals with dementia and college students’ attitudes toward aging and older adults with dementia. Students in an introductory gerontology course participated in a service-learning experience with cognitively impaired older adults for a period of ten weeks. All students in this introductory gerontology course completed reflective journals about their service-learning experience. In addition, a number of the students were interviewed to further explore their attitudes and perceptions about aging and service-learning with cognitively impaired older adults. The journals and interviews were then analyzed. The findings of this study explore and examine to the extent exposure to service-learning and cognitively impaired older adults changes college students’ attitude and perceptions of aging.
*Presented at the Gerontological Society of America Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA.
*Presented at the Gerontological Society of America Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA.
| Manning & Gibbons (2010) |
Talkin' Bout My Generation: The Presence of the Young-Old in Virtual Networks
Gibbons, H. M., & Manning, L. K. (2009)
This study explores and examines the impact of intergenerational interaction between individuals with dementia and college students’ attitudes toward aging and older adults with dementia. Students in an introductory gerontology course participated in a service-learning experience with cognitively impaired older adults for a period of ten weeks. All students in this introductory gerontology course completed reflective journals about their service-learning experience. In addition, a number of the students were interviewed to further explore their attitudes and perceptions about aging and service-learning with cognitively impaired older adults. The journals and interviews were then analyzed. The findings of this study explore and examine to the extent exposure to service-learning and cognitively impaired older adults changes college students’ attitude and perceptions of aging.
*Presented at the Ohio Association of Gerontology in Education in Oxford, OH.
*Presented at the Ohio Association of Gerontology in Education in Oxford, OH.
| Gibbons & Manning (2009) |
