Gill Porter

Profile

I am a PGR in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds.

I recently completed an MA in Disability Studies, with Distinction, at the university (2022), and was awarded the School prize in excellence for best overall dissertation, which was focussed on the return to campus of final year neurodivergent undergraduate students during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

This developed my research interests and was the stepping-off point for my move into further postgraduate research. To pursue my doctoral research, I have been successful in securing a place on the 1+3 White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP) scholarship funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). As part of this programme, I have now completed a further MA in Social Research (Interdisciplinary), with Distinction, at the University of Leeds 2023/24. For my dissertation I conducted a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), adopting an approach based on Norman Fairclough’s 3D model of CDA, of a sample of Yorkshire and Humberside universities’ Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) statements available in the public domain.

Alongside my studies, I have worked as a Specialist Study Skills tutor in Higher Education (HE) for just over ten years, working with disabled and neurodivergent undergraduate and postgraduate students in 1:1 sessions both in person and online. Having started working remotely during the pandemic means I have now worked with students from around 30 different HE institutions across the UK.

Research interests

My thinking and practice align with a social model of disability: in my sessions with disabled and neurodivergent students, I often hear of their frustrations with the exclusionary practices of their institutions, and although these accounts are anecdotal, I hear them frequently. My doctoral research investigates narratives of belonging in HE: those of disabled and neurodivergent postgraduate students (self-identifying as well as those with diagnosis), alongside the narratives of institutions. Although the numbers of students entering HE and disclosing disability has continued to increase, inequality and parity and equity of experiences persist. And, although the pandemic demonstrated change on a grand scale can be both rapid and profound, change for disabled students still remains slow.

My work so far has utilised its Disability Studies approach, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, 2006) right to inclusive education as a heuristic tool, alongside practitioner experience, to explore the exclusionary practices still experienced by disabled and neurodivergent students. It has also already had impact as findings from my MA Disability Studies contributed to the UK parliament’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST, 2023) report ‘Invisible Disabilities in Education and Employment’. I also presented on that dissertation’s findings at the International Conference on Challenges, Innovations and Opportunities in Higher Education Practices, June 2023; and on my MA Social Research dissertation at the Leeds Disability Studies Conference, September 2024, both at the University of Leeds.

Internationally, I recently (22-27 April 2025) presented at a resarch-in-progress round table at the American Education Research Assocation (AERA) conference in Denver, USA.

As I develop as a PGR I hope to continue to contribute to the field and the experiences of disabled and neurodivergent students by continuing to challenge dis/ableist attitudes and assumptions that can still prevail in HE.

Research interests

• Disability Studies in Education
• Critical Disability Studies
• Inclusive education
• Higher Education
• Social justice

Qualifications

• • MA Social Research (Interdisciplinary), University of Leeds, 2024
• • MA Disability Studies, University of Leeds, 2022
• • Postgraduate Certificate in Language, Literacies and Dyslexia, University of Birmingham, 2017
• • Postgraduate Certificate in Education (Post-Compulsory Education and Training), PGCE, University o