Dr
Tom
Ryan
(he/him)
School of Education
Research Associate
Full contact details
School of Education
The Wave
- Profile
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My research aims to challenge commonplace deficit understandings of learning disability, with a focus on family and the everyday. I'm a NIHR School for Social Care Research Post-doctoral fellow. My fellowship explores care transitions for adults with learning disabilities, with the goal of co-designing a resource to support families with this.
- Qualifications
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BA (Hons), MA, PhD
- Research interests
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My research is informed by critical disability studies, care studies and family sociology. I am interested in counter-narratives and how research can challenge dominant understandings of marginalised experiences. My PhD focused on the experiences of siblings of people with learning disabilities, looking at joy, humour and everyday living alongside to question deficit based narratives of siblinghood and disability.
Following my PhD my work has focused on care and learning disability, with an interest in how sibling relationships can be better supported in later life for people with learning disabilities.
I am a member of iHuman Executive and the School for Social Care Research.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Everyday humour: rethinking understandings of siblinghood and learning disability through a family sociology lens. The Sociological Review. View this article in WRRO
- Narrative portraits: affirmative approaches to understanding learning disability in the everyday. Frontiers in Sociology, 10. View this article in WRRO
- “I would not change [my] sibling for the world, Maybe the world can change for my sibling”: the experiences of adult siblings of people with developmental disabilities. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 34(6). View this article in WRRO
- Everyday humour: rethinking understandings of siblinghood and learning disability through a family sociology lens. The Sociological Review. View this article in WRRO
- Grants
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NIHR SSCR Post-Doctoral Fellowship, “We can work things out together”: Improving outcomes for people with learning disabilities during transitions in adulthood.
NIHR SSCR, No one wants to talk about it: Exploring transitions in family care for people with learning disabilities, PI Tom Ryan, CoIs Professor Katherine Runswick-Cole (University of Sheffield), Dr Sue Caton (Manchester Met) https://sscr.nihr.ac.uk/research/learning-disabilities-autism/transitions-siblings-carers/
- Professional activities and memberships
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iHuman Executive