A strand of my work focuses on illness, particularly the institutions and concepts which shape the experience of being ill. I understand that experience broadly, focusing less on its biological dimension and more on how illness transforms our relation to ourselves, others, and society.

In a recent article, I have developed a concept of plastic resilience. This challenges traditional conceptions of resilience in illness, which are usually framed in terms of a return to previous function (can you do the things you did before?). I think illness is more transformative than that and that we should think of resilience instead as how actively you are involved in the formation of a new self after illness. I make this argument drawing on Catherine Malabou’s conception of plasticity and then apply this to different clinical approaches. Article here.

I have also drawn on the work of Simone de Beauvoir on ageing and applied this to the COVID-19 care home crisis. I’ve argued that accounts of this crisis, including parliamentary reports, continue to perpetuate an image of older adults as passive. More here.

My most recent work has focused on disability activism/crip activism. In particular, how do people with disabilities organise and engage with the digital public sphere.