Sumaira: Who am I?

I am a Postgraduate research student working on a transdisciplinary project located primarily in the fields of English, Critical Disability Studies and Community Psychology.  I am also interested in the medical humanities and art practice. My work explores a long term medical condition with which I live, work and research. I engage with experiences of visual difference and multisensorial ways of knowing. My independent scholarship focuses on issues of inclusion and diversity and I hope my work makes some small change to disrupting and challenging marginalisation.  My research is qualitative and value based at its core, centring around theory and practice to enable and empower others as well as myself through action and principle.

I am also involved in volunteering and everyday activism relating to equality.  I have recently become a member of the NHS Greater Manchester Values Group which consists of people with lived experience of health marginalisation working alongside health professionals, those from the third sector organisations, and the wider community to influence positive change in the NHS and equal access for all.  My other patient and public involvement and engagement role is that of Vice Public Co-Chair of the Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network’s Public Experience Group.  In this group we seek to embed our involvement from the early stages of development of innovations such as the sharing of electronic patient records.  In my spare time I enjoy writing poetry by ear.  I consider my commitment to health and fitness activities (such as Yoga and Pilates) as a way to reclaim my wellness.