Congratulations to Samantha Butler on defending her PhD!
“My project found, from interviews and focus groups with 26 self-advocates labelled with intellectual disabilities in Nova Scotia and Ontario, that membership in a self-advocacy organization enabled a sense of belonging, rights, voices, and a legal consciousness to be realized. Nova Scotia still has large institutions into which persons labelled with intellectual disabilities can be placed if their needs change, whereas Ontario had closed all of its large institutions by 2009, yet the self-advocates in Nova Scotia, like those in Ontario, did not express fear or worry that they may face institutionalization in the future. This significant finding was explained by the empowering nature of self-advocacy group membership to provide a feeling of protection against oppressive policy and legislation, even for those self-advocates who had been institutionalized for many years when they were younger, prior to self-advocacy group membership.
My future plans include, in the short term, a four week research contract with the READ Initiative at Carleton, and in the long term, an application for SSHRC Post Doctoral funding, as well as applications for government and disability sector positions in policy development/analysis, and alternative-academic positions.”