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Dialogues on Disability: Shelley Tremain Interviews Robert Chapman
NOVEMBER 16, 2022 BY SHELLEYTREMAIN
biopoliticalphilosophy.com/2022/11/16/dialogues-on-disability-shelley-tremain-interviews-robert-chapman/
Hello, I’m Shelley Tremain and I’d like to welcome you to the ninety-second installment of Dialogues on Disability, the series of interviews that I am conducting with disabled philosophers and post to BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY on the third Wednesday of each month. The series is designed to provide a public venue for discussion with disabled philosophers about a range of topics, including their philosophical work on disability; the place of philosophy of disability vis-à-vis the discipline and profession; their experiences of institutional discrimination and exclusion, as well as personal and structural gaslighting in philosophy in particular and in academia more generally; resistance to ableism, racism, sexism, and other apparatuses of power; accessibility; and anti-oppressive pedagogy.
The land on which I sit to conduct these interviews is the ancestral territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabeg nations. The territory was the subject of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Ojibwe and allied nations around the Great Lakes. As a settler, I offer these interviews with respect for and in solidarity with Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island and other colonized settler states who, for thousands of years, have held sacred the land, water, and air, as well as their inhabitants and who, for centuries, have protected them from the ravages of colonialism and expropriation.
My guest today is Robert Chapman who is currently a Senior Lecturer in Education at Sheffield Hallam University. Robert obtained their doctorate on the concept of autistic thriving from the University of Essex in 2018. They work primarily on philosophy of disability–especially neurodiversity–and blog on neurodiversity politics. They are currently writing a book on neurodiversity and capitalism and another book that provides a short introduction to the neurodiversity movement. They like to spend time with their cat, Marcel.
Welcome to Dialogues on Disability, Robert! Please tell us about your background and how it led to your career in philosophy.
I grew up poor, moving around a lot, initially living in squats and council estates in London, then living elsewhere in England. I struggled to process information at school and found it very chaotic and stressful; so, I rarely went. Thankfully, I had a few good friends and a brother. When I was fifteen, I dropped out of school and left home to live at friends’ houses and then on the streets. I finally went to the local council offices to ask to go into foster care, mainly because it was snowing, and I was struggling to keep warm.
Having a loving and supportive foster family meant that I was able to think about going to university for the first time. After taking some access courses to get in, I ended up studying philosophy at the University of Southampton. I was initially attracted to philosophy because I often found it hard to understand the world: it was very chaotic and unclear. So, asking fundamental questions about the nature of things seemed like a good way to begin to understand it.
Initially, I found the existentialist thinkers and the history of European philosophy most interesting. I was also interested in Nietzsche and Wittgenstein, since I think that they too are seeking to come to terms with a chaotic world, in their own ways. While studying these thinkers, I became more interested in disability and mental health; so, I ended up going more in that direction. Thankfully, I was able to get a Masters scholarship and, subsequently, a Ph.D. scholarship; so, I was able to pursue my studies at the postgraduate level.
I finally obtained my doctorate in 2018. Since then, I have worked in three temporary teaching or research roles. I am currently lecturing at Sheffield Hallam University, which I really like, although the role is temporary, so I am not sure what I will be doing next year.
[Description of photo below: Robert on holiday in Lisbon, Portugal. They are standing in front of an old wooden door with peeling paint and iron bars wearing a backpack, shorts, a brimmed cap, and a t-shirt that bears the image of a walking hotdog and bun wearing a top-hat and holding a cane]
rest in link
NOVEMBER 16, 2022 BY SHELLEYTREMAIN
biopoliticalphilosophy.com/2022/11/16/dialogues-on-disability-shelley-tremain-interviews-robert-chapman/
Hello, I’m Shelley Tremain and I’d like to welcome you to the ninety-second installment of Dialogues on Disability, the series of interviews that I am conducting with disabled philosophers and post to BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY on the third Wednesday of each month. The series is designed to provide a public venue for discussion with disabled philosophers about a range of topics, including their philosophical work on disability; the place of philosophy of disability vis-à-vis the discipline and profession; their experiences of institutional discrimination and exclusion, as well as personal and structural gaslighting in philosophy in particular and in academia more generally; resistance to ableism, racism, sexism, and other apparatuses of power; accessibility; and anti-oppressive pedagogy.
The land on which I sit to conduct these interviews is the ancestral territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabeg nations. The territory was the subject of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Ojibwe and allied nations around the Great Lakes. As a settler, I offer these interviews with respect for and in solidarity with Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island and other colonized settler states who, for thousands of years, have held sacred the land, water, and air, as well as their inhabitants and who, for centuries, have protected them from the ravages of colonialism and expropriation.
My guest today is Robert Chapman who is currently a Senior Lecturer in Education at Sheffield Hallam University. Robert obtained their doctorate on the concept of autistic thriving from the University of Essex in 2018. They work primarily on philosophy of disability–especially neurodiversity–and blog on neurodiversity politics. They are currently writing a book on neurodiversity and capitalism and another book that provides a short introduction to the neurodiversity movement. They like to spend time with their cat, Marcel.
Welcome to Dialogues on Disability, Robert! Please tell us about your background and how it led to your career in philosophy.
I grew up poor, moving around a lot, initially living in squats and council estates in London, then living elsewhere in England. I struggled to process information at school and found it very chaotic and stressful; so, I rarely went. Thankfully, I had a few good friends and a brother. When I was fifteen, I dropped out of school and left home to live at friends’ houses and then on the streets. I finally went to the local council offices to ask to go into foster care, mainly because it was snowing, and I was struggling to keep warm.
Having a loving and supportive foster family meant that I was able to think about going to university for the first time. After taking some access courses to get in, I ended up studying philosophy at the University of Southampton. I was initially attracted to philosophy because I often found it hard to understand the world: it was very chaotic and unclear. So, asking fundamental questions about the nature of things seemed like a good way to begin to understand it.
Initially, I found the existentialist thinkers and the history of European philosophy most interesting. I was also interested in Nietzsche and Wittgenstein, since I think that they too are seeking to come to terms with a chaotic world, in their own ways. While studying these thinkers, I became more interested in disability and mental health; so, I ended up going more in that direction. Thankfully, I was able to get a Masters scholarship and, subsequently, a Ph.D. scholarship; so, I was able to pursue my studies at the postgraduate level.
I finally obtained my doctorate in 2018. Since then, I have worked in three temporary teaching or research roles. I am currently lecturing at Sheffield Hallam University, which I really like, although the role is temporary, so I am not sure what I will be doing next year.
[Description of photo below: Robert on holiday in Lisbon, Portugal. They are standing in front of an old wooden door with peeling paint and iron bars wearing a backpack, shorts, a brimmed cap, and a t-shirt that bears the image of a walking hotdog and bun wearing a top-hat and holding a cane]
rest in link