Dr Kirsty Liddiard

BA Hons, MA, PhD

School of Education

Senior Research Fellow

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead

edu - photo of kirsty liddiard
Profile picture of edu - photo of kirsty liddiard
k.liddiard@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 8111

Full contact details

Dr Kirsty Liddiard
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
Profile

I have taught Sociology, Critical Sexuality Studies, Disability Studies, Education Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in a number of universities in the UK and Canada. These include the University of Sheffield; the University of Warwick (UK); the University of Toronto (Canada); Ryerson University (Canada); and Trent University (Canada).

Research interests

My research spans disability, gender, sexuality and intimacy, and more recently, childhood and youth, with a particular interest in how disablism and ableism both inform and shape these experiences in the everyday lives of disabled people.

I centre disability activism, arts and culture in my work and make use of arts-informed methodologies because of the ways in which they push the boundaries of traditional social scientific thinking and enable multiple ways of thinking and knowing.

I am currently exploring these interests in my project Living Life to the Fullest, which seeks to forge new understandings of the lives, hopes, desires and contributions of children and young people with ‘life-limiting’ or ‘life-threatening’ impairments (hereby LL/LTIs).

Research Projects

  • Life, Death, Disability and the Human: Living Life to the Fullest. ESRC. Kirsty Liddiard, Dan Goodley and Katherine Runswick-Cole. (2017-2020).
  • Arts, Architecture, Activism and Access: Taking Around the Toilet to New Spaces. AHRC. Kirsty Liddiard, Jen Slater (Sheffield Hallam), Jill Smith (Sheffield Hallam), Lisa Procter (Manchester Metropolitan University). (2017-2018).
  • Touretteshero: Disability Arts, Engagement and Possibility. Wellcome Trust. Jess Thom, Matthew Pountney, Kirsty Liddiard (2017-2020)
  • Storying Our Chemical Lives: A Design Fiction Workshop Social Science and Humanities Research of Canada (SSHRC) Esther Ignagni (Ryerson University), Eliza Chandler (Ryerson University), Kirsty Liddiard 
  • Learning disabled people’s intimate lives: Accounting for Austerity. Wellcome Trust. Kirsty Liddiard. (2016).
  • Making Space for Developmental Disability and Intimate Citizenship. Social Science and Humanities Research of Canada (SSHRC) Esther Ignagni (Ryerson University), Ann Fudge-Schormans (McMaster University). (2015).
Publications

Books

  • Liddiard K, Whitney-Mitchell S, Evans K, Mbe LW, Spurr R, Vogelmann E, Runswick-Cole K & Goodley D (2022) Living life to the fullest: Disability, youth and voice. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Liddiard K (2017) The Intimate Lives of Disabled People. Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Liddiard K, Curran T & Runswick-Cole K (2017) Concluding thoughts and future directions. RIS download Bibtex download

Edited books

  • Martin P, de Saille S, Liddiard K & Pearce W (Eds.) (2022) Being Human During Covid-19. Bristol: Bristol University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Runswick-Cole K, Curran T & Liddiard K (Eds.) (2017) The Palgrave Handbook of Disabled Children's Childhood Studies. Springer. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Chapters

Website content

  • White L, Liddiard K & Goodley D On building trust: Co-producing what it means to be trustworthy. RIS download Bibtex download

Dictionary/encyclopaedia entries

Preprints

Research group

I undertake a range of supervisory roles within the School and am currently supervising four PhD students. I welcome PhD students across a number of social science disciplines that wish to undertake research in the areas of disability, education, gender, sexuality and childhood and youth.

Teaching activities

Last year, I was the convenor of Globalising Education (EDU309), a third-year undergraduate module within the School of Education’s BA Education, Culture and Childhood here at the University of Sheffield. Due to my research schedule, this year I am only guest lecturing across a number of modules in the School of Education.

Professional activities and memberships
  • Editor at large for the leading journal Disability and Society and regular peer reviewer for Gender and Education; Community Development Journal; Sexualities; Emotion, Space and Society; and Girlhood, as well as for the publishers Palgrave, Routledge, and Jessica Kingsley.
  • Member of the Faculty of Social Sciences Equality and Diversity Committee; the Sexuality Alliance (Open University); Co-Founder of the Faculty of Social Sciences Early Career Researcher Forum; and founding member of the Centre for Critical Psychology and Education and iHuman.