This year for the first time the Institute was able to award top-up bursaries to UNSW students registered for a higher degree by research. One of the Institute's key goals is to build a community of disability researchers across UNSW, encouraging the use of inclusive and interdisciplinary methods in disability research. With this scheme we are taking further steps in that direction by supporting emerging scholars at UNSW whose research focuses on disability, particularly those who are using methods of co-production or co-design.
The selection panel (UNSW Disability Innovation Institute Director Professor Jackie Leach Scully and Dr Janelle Weise from the School of Psychiatry) had a hard time selecting the top applicants from a very strong field. We are delighted to be able to announce the following four recipients of a $5,000 bursary this year:
- Michelle Tso (School of Education). Michelle's inclusive research uses body mapping to explore experiences of peer interaction from the perspective of high school girls on the autism spectrum and their friends.
- Xinyue Zhang (Business School). Xin's research will co-produce a Virtual Reality video with people with physical disability to show the authentic social environment they experience, thus improving the public's understanding of disability and the need for more enabling environments.
- Laurel Mimmo (School of Women's and Children's Health). Laurel's research will show hospitals and health researchers how to meaningfully involve children and young people with intellectual disability in research and health care improvement, using inclusive approaches.
- Chloe Watfern (School of Art and Design). Chloe's thesis explores how art works in two studios that support artists and makers with intellectual disability.
As part of the award, the recipients will be asked to give brief presentations of their work at a webinar at the Institute next year. We hope to be able to run a similar scheme in 2022 – watch out for the announcement!
Photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.