Tig Slater

  1. About us
  2. Our people
  3. Staff profiles
  4. Tig Slater

Dr. Tig Slater PhD

Associate Professor in Queer Disability Studies and Education

Summary

My work draws on disability, queer, trans and gender studies to consider relationships disability, gender and the body. I am also interested in critical explorations of developmental discourse, issues of access/accessibility and institutional Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy (EDI).

Jenny Slater

About

Sitting at the intersection of trans, queer and disability studies, I have led a number of funded research projects which have utilised co-produced and participatory methods to explore themes relating to public space, bodies, gender, issues of social justice and workplace solidarity.
 
I am a founding member of the Queer Disability Studies Network (https://queerdisabilitystudies.wordpress.com).
 
One of my research projects, Around the Toilet, has been awarded the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s (NCCPE) ‘Engage’ Award for public engagement within the arts, humanities and social sciences.

I conceptualise ‘education’ broadly through my teaching, asking questions about the relationships between ‘education’, stratification (gender, race, class, sexuality, dis/ability and so on) and transnational capitalism. I am interested in critiquing dominant discourses of ‘development’ as they relate to education, particularly in relation to the individualisation of social inequalities.

Teaching

Sheffield Institute of Education

College of Social Sciences and Arts

I teach in areas broadly related to my research across and number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the Sheffield Institute of Education.

Research

My research has taken place through a number of distinct, but related research projects. These have included:
 
1. My 2015 monograph challenges our understandings of disability, youth and adulthood (Slater, 2015)
2. A series of AHRC funded research projects, collectively known as 'Around the Toilet', which centred queer, trans and disabled people, to ask what makes a safe and accessibility toilet space.
2. A BA/Leverhulme funded project called 'Whose Rainbow?' which asked what LGBT+ staff and students in higher education felt about the ways universities use rainbow symbolism.
3. 'Is All Publicity Good Publicity? Addressing Public Harassment in LGBT+ Research Impact & Engagement' asks what universities should be going to safeguard those doing LGBT+ research from public harassment.
 
You can find out more about this work via the links and publications below.

Around the Toilet project: https://aroundthetoilet.com/
Whose Rainbow? project: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/34366/
Is all publicity good publicity? Addressing Public Harassment in LGBT+ Research Impact & Engagement: https://lgbtharassment.wordpress.com/
Queer Disability Studies Network: https://queerdisabilitystudies.wordpress.com
Academic blog: https://tigslater.wordpress.com

Publications

Journal articles

Jones, C., White, L., Slater, J., & Pluquailec, J. (2023). Hospitality work as social reproduction: embodied and emotional labour during COVID-19. Sociology, 58 (2), 471-488. http://doi.org/10.1177/00380385231189190

Slater, J. (2023). Mundanity, fascination and threat: interrogating responses to publicly-engaged research in toilet, trans and disability studies amid a ‘culture war’. The Sociological Review. http://doi.org/10.1177/00380261231167747

Harvey, H., Slater, T., Coleman-Fountain, E., & Jones, C. (2023). Building a Community for Queer Disability Studies: Lessons from the Snail. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 12 (1), 1-28. https://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/article/view/969

Slater, J., & Jones, C. (2021). Toilet signs as border markers: Exploring disabled people’s access to space. International Journal of Disability and Social Justice, 1 (1), 50-72. http://doi.org/10.13169/intljofdissocjus.1.1.0050

Jones, C., & Slater, J. (2020). The toilet debate: stalling trans possibilities and defending ‘women's protected spaces’. The Sociological Review. http://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120934697

Slater, J., Jones, C., & Procter, L. (2019). Troubling School Toilets: Resisting Discourses of "Development’" through a Critical Disability Studies and Critical Psychology Lens. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 40 (3), 412-423.

Slater, J., Ágústsdóttir, E., & Haraldsdóttir, F. (2018). Becoming intelligible woman: Gender, disability and resistance at the border zone of youth. Feminism and Psychology, 28 (3), 409-426. http://doi.org/10.1177/0959353518769947

Slater, J., & Liddiard, K. (2018). Why Disability Studies Scholars Must Challenge Transmisogyny and Transphobia. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 7 (2), 83-93. http://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v7i2.424

Slater, J., & Liddiard, K. (2018). The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in an Age of Austerity: Resistance, Reclamation and Affirmation. The Review of Disability Studies (RDS): An International Journal, 14 (2). https://www.rdsjournal.org/index.php/journal/article/view/835

Slater, J., & Liddiard, K. (2018). The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in an Age of Austerity: Resistance, Reclamation and Affirmation. The Review of Disability Studies (RDS): An International Journal, 14 (2). https://www.rdsjournal.org/index.php/journal/article/view/835

Slater, J., & Liddiard, K. (2018). “Like, pissing yourself is not a particularly attractive quality, let’s be honest” : learning to contain through youth, adulthood, disability and sexuality. Sexualities, 21 (3), 319-333. http://doi.org/10.1177/1363460716688674

Slater, J. (2017). Becoming women: the embodied self in image culture. Disability & Society, 32 (8), 1286-1288. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2017.1362187

Slater, J., Jones, C., & Procter, L. (2017). Troubling school toilets : resisting discourses of 'development' through a critical disability studies and critical psychology lens. Discourse : Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1-12. http://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2017.1316237

Slater, J., Jones, C., & Procter, L. (2016). School toilets : queer, disabled bodies and gendered lessons of embodiment. Gender and Education, 1-15. http://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1270421

Slater, J. (2016). Book Review: Little vast rooms of undoing exploring identity and embodiment through public toilet spaces. Disability and Society, 31 (3), 439-442. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2016.1141579

Slater, J. (2015). Chronic youth disability, sexuality, and U.S. media cultures of rehabilitation. Disability & Society, 30 (9), 1452-1454. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2015.1062226

Slater, J. (2015). X. Stresses and contradictions of trying to ‘do feminisms’ within the (neo)liberal academy. Feminism & Psychology, 12 (1), 56-60. http://doi.org/10.1177/0959353514562808

Slater, J. (2014). Book review: Feminist Queer Crip by Alison Kafer. Disability and Society, 29 (5), 840-844. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2014.888850

Slater, J. (2012). Youth for sale: using critical disability perspectives to examine the embodiment of ‘Youth’. Societies, 2 (3), 195-209. http://doi.org/10.3390/soc2030195

Slater, J. (2012). Self-advocacy and socially just pedagogy. Disability Studies Quarterly, 32 (1). http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/3033

Slater, J. (2012). Stepping outside normative neoliberal discourse: youth and disability meet – the case of Jody McIntyre. Disability and Society, 27 (5), 723-727. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.686879

Slater, J. (2012). Comment from the Field. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 6 (2), 227-230. http://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2012.18

Book chapters

Jones, C., Slater, J., Cleasby, S., Kemp, G., Lisney, E., & Rennie, S. (2019). PISSED OFF! Disability activists fighting for toilet access in the UK. In Berghs, M., Chataika, T., & El-Lahib, Y. (Eds.) The Routledge handbook of disability activism. (pp. 219-231). Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Disability-Activism/Berghs-Chataika-El-Lahib-Dube/p/book/9780815349303

Slater, J., & Chapman, E. (2017). Normalcy, Intersectionality and Ableism : teaching about and around ‘inclusion’ to future educators. In Runswick-Cole, K., Curran, T., & Liddiard, K. (Eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies. (pp. 333-349). Palgrave Macmillan UK: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137544452

Slater, J. (2016). The (Normal) Non-Normativity of Youth. In Mallett, R., Ogden, C., & Slater, J. (Eds.) Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane : Precarious Positions. (pp. 14-44). Chester: University of Chester Press: http://storefront.chester.ac.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12_14&products_id=626

Slater, J. (2016). The (Normal) Non-Normativity of Youth. In Mallett, R., Ogden, C., & Slater, J. (Eds.) Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane : Precarious Positions. (pp. 14-44). Chester: University of Chester Press: http://storefront.chester.ac.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12_14&products_id=626

Mallett, R., & Slater, J. (2014). Language. In Disability Studies: A Student's Guide. (pp. 92-94). SAGE Publications Ltd: http://doi.org/10.4135/9781473957701.n29

(2013). Disabled Children's Childhood Studies. Palgrave Macmillan UK: http://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008220

(2013). Youth: Responding to Lives. SensePublishers: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-431-4

Slater, J. (2013). Research with Dis/abled Youth: Taking a Critical Disability, ‘Critically Young’ Positionality. In Disabled Children's Childhood Studies. (pp. 180-195). Palgrave Macmillan UK: http://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008220_14

Slater, J. (2013). Playing Grown-Up. In Youth: Responding to Lives. (pp. 75-91). SensePublishers: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-431-4_6

Slater, J. (2013). Research with Dis/abled Youth. In Disabled Children's Childhood Studies. Palgrave Macmillan: http://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008220_14

Books

Mallett, R., Ogden, C., & Slater, J. (Eds.). (2016). Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane : Precarious Positions. Chester: University of Chester Press. http://storefront.chester.ac.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12_14&products_id=626

Slater, J. (2015). Youth and disability: a challenge to Mr Reasonable. Burlington: Ashgate. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315546001

Reports

Slater, T., Simms, D., & Formby, E. (2024). Whose Rainbow? Project Report. A research project looking at the use of rainbow symbolism and LGBT+ inclusion initiatives in higher education. Sheffield Hallam University. http://doi.org/10.7190/Whose_Rainbow

Jones, C., White, L., Slater, J., & Pluquailec, J. (2022). Beers, burgers + bleach : hygiene, toilets and hospitality in the time of Covid-19 : final project report 2022. Exeter University. https://aroundthetoilet.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/beers-burgers-bleach-report-web-1.pdf

Slater, J., & Jones, C. (2018). Around the Toilet: a research project report about what makes a safe and accessible toilet space. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Hallam University. http://doi.org/10.7190/9781843874195

Theses / Dissertations

Terrell, K.E. (2023). Exploring (dis)abled children's embodied experiences in primary school space. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Slater, J. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00514

Terrell, K.E. (2023). Exploring (dis)abled children's embodied experiences in primary school space. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Slater, J. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00514

Tobias-Green, K. (2020). Stories from an artinstitution: The writinglives of students withdyslexia. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Slater, J. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00310

Tobias-Green, K. (2020). Stories from an artinstitution: The writinglives of students withdyslexia. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Slater, J. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00310

Internet Publications

Anderson, J. (2021). People just want ‘clean, free toilets with locks’ and ‘don’t mind what gender they are’, experts say. https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/gender-neutral-toilets-public-free-clean-locks-government-ministry-of-housing-1004395

Corby, G. (2020). Why schools need to flush out rotten toilets. https://www.tes.com/magazine/archived/why-schools-need-flush-out-rotten-toilets

Needham, J. (2019). The corporate poo patrol is coming after your precious toilet time. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/battle-toilet-workplace

Parry, C. (2019). Core functions: good practice for museum toilets. [Print Only]. https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/in-practice/2019/11/15112019-core-functions-good-practice-museum-toilets/#:~:text=The%20basics%20At%20the%20very,or%20a%20working%20hand%20dryer

Jones, C., & Slater, J. (2018). Toilet talk: why public loos just aren’t good enough.

Slater, J. (2016). SEND Focus: School toilets teach disabled students that they are "different". https://www.tes.com/news/send-focus-school-toilets-teach-disabled-students-they-are-different

Mills, C., & Slater, J. (2016). Why the A-Level psychology exam is already out of date. https://theconversation.com/why-the-a-level-psychology-exam-is-already-out-of-date-48853

Other publications

Liddiard, K., & Slater, J. (2018). The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in Times of Austerity. Review of Disability Studies: https://www.rdsjournal.org/index.php/journal/issue/view/Vol%2014%2C%20No%202

Liddiard, K., & Slater, J. (2018). The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in Times of Austerity. Review of Disability Studies: https://www.rdsjournal.org/index.php/journal/issue/view/Vol%2014%2C%20No%202

Other activities

I am an editorial board member for The Sociological Review journal.

Postgraduate supervision

I supervise PhD students in my areas and welcome contact from those interested in researching around disability, gender, queer and trans studies from broadly qualitative and sociological perspectives.

Media

Cancel event

Are you sure you want to cancel your place on Saturday 12 November?

Close
}