Remembering Sally
The Cripping Breath team is very sad to announce the death of our incredible research team member, Sally Whitney-Mitchell. Sally was the project鈥檚 Lead Co-researcher - an integral role through which she was due to lead a small team of community-based researchers with lived experience.
We have been lucky enough to work with Sally at the University of 91探花 where, since 2017, she was an academic researcher. Sally had a special interest in the lives of disabled young people and, in particular, the impact of faith in their lives. Sally was a much loved member of the team of researchers on (ESRC ES/P001041/1), as part of which she co-authored the book .
Sally went on to work on projects with Youth Employment UK and with the disability charity Scope. She also led the which was a collaboration with Canine Partners, who had introduced her to her beloved assistance dog, Ethan.
She was also a member of the research institute - iHuman - an institute for the study of the human. Sally was, in many ways, a living embodiment of the study of the human condition - she was kind, generous, would challenge others but do so with kindness. She was a wonderful researcher and thinker.
We also remember how much she loved social theory - we offer a list of her publications below. She read widely and reflected on what she read through her own experiences. She challenged all of us to think differently about disability, life, death and what it means to be human. She also changed the way the University works, demanding that everyone think differently about what a 鈥榬esearch job鈥 might look like, and how it can be done remotely and even, at times, from bed. Much of this radical practice is now embedded in Cripping Breath as routine.
Sally was so excited to begin work on Cripping Breath and we are so saddened that she will not be here to do the work she planned. Sally contributed so much to the project design, planning, our approaches to co-production, which are wrapped up in an ethic of care, and so much more. It鈥檚 hard to reflect the extent of our loss in this short post, but we are deeply committed to carrying her spirit with us in all the work that we do in the project, and in disability studies at 91探花. She will be remembered and what she taught us will continue to shape the work that we do.
Thank you, Sally.
References
Books
Liddiard, K., Whitney-Mitchell, S., Evans, K., Watts, L., Spurr, R., Vogelmann, E., Runswick-Cole, K. and Goodley, D., 2022. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Book chapters
Earle, S., Whitney-Mitchell, S. and Blackburn, M., 2024. Involving people with life-shortening conditions in research: Perspectives on co-production. In (pp. 159-172). Routledge.
Runswick-Cole, K., Goodley, D., and Liddiard, K. and Whitney, S. 2023. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about quality of life rather than length of life鈥: using and refusing policy discourse in the lives of children labelled with life-limiting Robinson, S., Fisher, K.R. eds.
Earle, S., Blackburn, M., Chambers, L., Downing, J., Flemming, K., Hale, J., Marston, H.R., O'Dell, L., Sinason, V. and Whitney-Mitchell, S., 2023. Disruptions, relationships and intimate futures: The unintended consequences of pandemic control. In (pp. 110-125). Routledge.
Earle, S., Whitney-Mitchell, S. and Blackburn, M., 2023. 11 Involving people with life-shortening conditions in research. , p.147.
Goodley, D., Liddiard, K., Runswick-Cole, K., Watts, L., Whitney, S., Dobbin, H. and Moss, C., 2022. Posthumanist Disability Studies. In (pp. 793-822). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Liddiard, K., Runswick-Cole, K., Goodley, D., Spurr, R., Whitney, S., Vogelmann, E., Watts, L. and Evans, K., 2022. 鈥淲hy Would I Go to Hospital if It鈥檚 Not Going to Try and Save Me?鈥: Disabled Young People鈥檚 Experiences of the COVID-19 Crisis. In (pp. 60-66). Bristol University Press.
Journal articles
Evans, K. and Whitney-Mitchell, S., 2023. The British Journal of Social Work, 53(3), pp.1735-1741.
Earle, S., Blackburn, M., Chambers, L., Downing, J., Flemming, K., Hale, J., Marston, H.R., O鈥橠ell, L., Sinason, V., Watts, L. and Whitney, S., 2022. 鈥榃hose life are they going to save? It鈥檚 probably not going to be mine!鈥 Living with a Life-Shortening Condition During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Grounded Theory Study of Embodied Precarity. Qualitative Health Research, 32(14), pp.2055-2065.
Whitney, S., Liddiard, K., Goodley, D., Runswick-Cole, K., Vogelmann, E., Evans, K., Watts (MBE), L., and Aimes, C. 2019. 鈥, Sociology of Health and Illness, 41: 8, 1473鈥1487
Liddiard, K., Runswick鈥怌ole, K., Goodley, D., Whitney, S., Vogelmann, E. and Watts MBE, L., 2019. Children & Society, 33(2), pp.154-167.