/library/oar/handle/123456789/129601 2025-12-21T12:03:47Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/129646 Title: Living and working with the personal and the political in disability studies : a conversation with Shahd Alshammari Authors: Callus, Anne-Marie; Alshamari, Shahd Abstract: Dr Shahd Alshammari is Assistant Professor of Literature at the Department of English Language and Literature, College of Arts and Sciences at the Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait. She teaches a variety of literature classes and creative writing. Her passion for disability studies is channelled through her academic work in literature as well as her own literary output. Shahd Alshammari: I am passionate about disability studies; I am one of the first scholars working on Disability Studies in the Middle East region. My work began more than a decade ago and I have been constantly trying to change the stereotypical research and writing about disability and the Global South. For example, I teach 19th century literature with a focus on Victorian understandings of the body and mental health. I expand this to include new readings of Victorian texts (such as the Brontës’ work) to consider whether characters like Jane Eyre were actually neurodivergent or perhaps autistic. I also focus on the collective obsession of the body and what it symbolises (the nation, deterioration of the nation) and how we can relate this to other cultures today. Drawing on classical texts, we can always find parallels today in various cultures and how society is still stigmatising disabled bodies. Another course I teach is Adolescent Literature and we look at various depictions of disability and otherness in fairy tales as well as Disney’s depiction of disability and the lack of representation. [excerpt] 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/129645 Title: Therapeutic trauma-informed practice for helping professionals in child and adolescent social welfare settings : a semi-systematic review Authors: D’Amico, Anthea; Psaila, Claudia Abstract: Trauma is considered to be pervasive particularly in child welfare settings. Principles of traumainformed care and practice have become established and numerous efforts have been made to apply these principles when working with children and adolescents who have experienced trauma. However, a comprehensive understanding of how these principles are translated into practice, particularly in child and adolescent welfare settings seems lacking. This paper presents a semi-systematic review using thematic analysis to map and describe how trauma-informed principles are translated into practical, therapeutic skills by professionals in such settings. Nineteen peer reviewed articles published between 2000-2024 were retrieved using the HyDi search portal. The themes portray various skills and interventions considered important when working with trauma in children and adolescents. The practices of integrating embodied and creative expression and systemic interventions in social welfare practice are emphasised. Skills highlighting the power of human connections and the significance of narratives and emotional regulation in trauma-informed practice are also evident in the articles reviewed. As a result of the review, a common process that starts with the establishment of safety and moves toward narrative expression and processing is observed within containing and supportive relationships. Ultimately, this paper advocates for practice and services that are grounded in trauma-informed principles and therapeutic competence. As a result, such services and practices may contribute to meet the complexity of the needs of children and adolescents in welfare settings. 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/129644 Title: Cross-pollination for social well-being : an interdisciplinary pedagogy linking art, nature, and well-being Authors: Puntawe, Rona Fugaban; Zammit, Raffaella; Camilleri, Martina; Caruana, Censu Abstract: This is a reflexive paper about a collaborative workshop aimed at nurturing artists' creativity and well-being through nature, as part of the SPRING Artistic Programme for Emerging Artists of the Gabriel Caruana Foundation (GCF). Artists, well-being facilitators and environmental educators collaborated from across GCF, the Centre for Environmental Education Research (CEER) and the International Master in Adult Education for Social Change (IMAESC). The authors offer a critical reflection on how this cross-pollination of different disciplines with a place-based pedagogy contributes to social well-being, including implications for further practice and research. The design included conceptual and contextual preparation, project planning, and design workshops that optimised collaboration and alignment. Understanding the broader social context informed the guiding principles, constraints, needs, and objectives that framed the cross-pollination with a learner-centric pedagogy of place. The multi-pedagogical delivery allowed emergent coproduction of knowledge among the facilitators and participants. Leveraging nature created an embodied learning experience of well-being and creativity. The evaluation included participants’ and facilitators’ input. Participants’ structured criticism and feedback loops throughout the workshop fostered conditions for creativity, critical dialogue, and co-creation. Embracing collaboration and connection to self, others and nature were central to the lessons learned. The facilitators’ retrospective session revealed the transformative power of collaboration across disciplines, broadening CEER's scope to promote sustainability and community engagement as well as GCF’s well-being initiatives for artists. Overall, the paper showcases the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and working at the edges to scale the impact of place-based pedagogy in fostering creativity, well-being, and sustainability. 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/129643 Title: Charting household wellbeing in Malta. Critical reflections by a member of the research group on the reception of the group’s proposed definition and estimates of the national living income in Malta Authors: Gravina, Joseph Abstract: To improve their capacity to engage in social dialogue on the issues of, among others, poverty and specifically in-work poverty in Malta, the General Workers Union (GWU) along with project partners, the Alliance Against Poverty (AfK) and Graffitti, issued a tender for research on the National Living Income (NLI) in Malta. The GWU assigned the tender to Rethink Advisory and an interdisciplinary team of researchers was selected by the assignee to carry out the project. The researchers eventually produced the Report, ‘A Proposal Towards the Definition and Estimates of the National Living Income in Malta’ (Gravina et al., 2022). The working definition adopted for NLI was “the net annual income required for a household in Malta to afford a decent standard of living for all members of that household”. Primary and secondary data were gathered and analysed following both a qualitative and quantitative methodology. The map of households that emerged illustrated the inequality that pervades Maltese society - pensionable and single adult households being relegated well below the statistical reference points indicating a decent standard of living for these households. The results were discussed at a number of public fora and with all the social partners. Following the first part of the essay in which the present author and NLI co-researcher describes and discusses at length the contents of the Report in order to establish its potential claim to attention, the rest of the essay critically reflects on the aftermath following the publication of the report and its dissemination in public fora. Among others, it discusses the way civil and political society engaged with this NLI estimates initiative. The focus on political and civil society and reflection on the follow-up on the research was enriched by adopting certain notions from Antonio Gramsci’s conceptual armature as developed in his Prison Notebooks. 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z