After returning back to the UK from a long summer holiday at the end of August, I attended the 2024 Leeds Disability Conference and then finished my Confirmation Review examination. For me, this is the first time to participate in an international academic conference, where I met people with various cultural backgrounds, connected with scholars whose work had inspired me years before, presented my first-year outcome to people with similar research interests and got invaluable suggestions from them.
My presentation was based on the proposal I extended during my first year PhD study and happened a week before my confirmation review examination. Therefore, the Leeds Disability Conference has become a friendly space where I could practice and think over questions I may come across in the confirmation review. During my presentation, I gave a detailed explanation of why I intended to explore disabled people’s self-representation on a Chinese social media platform, why I chose to do my research in a posthuman and post-qualitative way, and theoretical concepts and research questions that will guide my research. Audience doing research in the new materialist way brought up thought-provoking questions such as how to visualise assemblage in the final thesis and suggestions of narrowing down theories and paying more attention to differences among varied schools of thought in new materialism. These questions remind me of the uncertainties I may come across in my future research and make me thrilled at the same time!
During the conference, I met a disability studies scholar from Taiwan, who contributed to the foreword of the Chinese-translated version of The New Politics of Disablement released in 2021. I can still remember the great excitement I felt when I aimlessly browsed the bookstore and suddenly came across a disability-related monograph on the bookshelf! I bought the book, read the original text and the translated version, and was deeply touched by the lucidity of both authors' and the translator's writing. Popularising disability-related knowledge through translation has been planted deeply within my heart, and has become something I wish to do someday in the future. Thanks to the conference, I could connect with these humane scholars. Those faded memories of what led me to a PhD journey rekindled.
I feel truly grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Leeds Disability Conference with my supportive colleagues from the School of Education at University of 91̽»¨. Conference is such a wonderful space to meet with people who devote themselves to promoting a just society. It is a wonderful place where discussions and divergent opinions prompt me to reflect on what counts as justice and what matters to different people during research processes.
