Professor Bethan Evans PhD

Through collaboration with the Disabled People’s Organisation Chronic Illness Inclusion (CII), Morag Rose, Ana Bê Periera (Liverpool Hope University), Catherine Hale, Anna Ruddock and Alison Allam, I am researching the gendered lived experience of health and social care for people with Energy Limiting Chronic Illness/ Energy Limiting Conditions (ELC/I). This work is funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Grant. ELC/I are conditions characterised by debilitating fatigue (e.g. ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, Long Covid, Neurological and Autoimmune conditions, amongst others). Using qualitative survey data from a consultation run by CII documenting women, trans and non-binary people’s experiences of health and social care in England, this project looks at the ways in which patriarchal histories of medicine continue to be felt in the form of institutionalised disbelief in medical consultations. We are also interested in the impact that disbelief from medical professionals has on people’s wider lives in terms of relationships with family and friends, access to reasonable adjustments in education or work, access to benefits, and people’s sense of self and psychological well-being. Theoretically we’re interested in these experiences as forms of ‘epistemic injustice’ and are exploring how feminist, queer, critical race and crip theory can help us understand these forms of injustice. This project also aims to make recommendations on how key institutions can better support people with ELC/I. More information about the project is available here.

Flying while Fat:
Through collaboration with Stacy Bias, and Rachel Colls, our research has explored the exclusionary spaces of commercial air travel for fat* people. Based on qualitative survey and interview data, we have explored the ways in which the material spaces of the plane (e.g. seat sizes) combine with hostile social attitudes towards fat people on planes and the ways in which these relate to the political economies of commercial air travel. Theoretically we’ve explored this through work on embodied dys-appearance and queer phenomenology to understand how plane spaces make fat bodies hyperpresent and through trans, queer and crip theory to understand the ways in which the basic needs and rights of fat people are denied in commercial air travel. We have also looked at the implications of the limited space afforded on commercial aircraft for the health and wellbeing of fat people. As well as academic papers, a key output from this work was an animation produced by Stacy Bias.

*Fat activists have worked to reclaim fat as a term of pride. As such, we use the term fat rather than pathologizing terms such as overweight or obesity.

Biopolitics and critical geographies of anti-obesity health and education policy:
My work critically explores the (bio)politics surrounding health and education policy in relation to a range of theoretical debates. A particular focus for my work has been anti-obesity policy, in relation to three specific areas: first education policy and the role of children's bodies within pre-emptive health policy; secondly urban governance and design and the role of planning professionals in health policy; and thirdly, working with Rachel Colls, challenging the ways in which geographical work on obesogenic environments pathologises fat bodies and spaces. Core to this research has been collaborations with fat activists. Some of this work was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through an ESRC research project 'Designing Out Fatness: The Built Environment in Anti Obesity Policy' and an ESRC seminar series grant titled 'Fat Studies and Health At Every Size: Bigness Beyond Obesity'.

Curiosity and Wellbeing:
In collaboration with Richard Phillips, a Wellcome Trust small grant allowed us to explore the role of creativity in relation to wellbeing. The project focused on initiatives funded through the Decade of Health and Wellbeing in Liverpool which promoted ‘five ways to well being’, one of which is ‘take notice, be curious…be aware of the world around you’. Through interviews with organisations delivering projects funded through this initiative, we have particularly explored the ways in which place is mobilised as a means to improve wellbeing in relation to memory box and befriending projects for people living with dementia, community gardening, and urban photography. Through this work we’ve looked at the ways in which friendship and connections with others, as well as connections to the micro-geographies of places through ordinary things (e.g. found objects, insects, mud) help us understand wellbeing in relational terms. This work draws on, and contributes to, work in geography on therapeutic environments, exploring curiosity as a means to understand the relationship between people and places.

Geographies of Young People:
My work on anti-obesity education policy outlined also speaks to an additional theme in my research: geographies of young people. My PhD research began my work in this area, through exploring gendered experiences of physical education and health initiatives in relation to body image for teenagers in Liverpool schools. Building on this, my work has also explored how we understand youth and young people within geography. A further project funded by the British Academy, in collaboration with Matt Benwell, Andy Davies and Catherine Wilkinson used participatory methods to work with a group of young people to produce a radio documentary about the riots in the 1980s in Liverpool. This radio documentary can be accessed online here.