Mindy Ptolomey

Profile

I research, teach, and craft to reimagine, remake, and (re)theorise disability and gender inequalities. I joined the University of Leeds as Lecturer in Disability Studies in 2026, following the completion of an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Glasgow. I am also an Affiliate Lecturer in Disability Studies at the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Glasgow, and have held visiting fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution and at Wonderlab, Monash University. At the University of Leeds I am a member of the Centre for Disability Studies and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies.

I hold a PhD in Sociology from the University of Glasgow, first supervised by Professor Nick Watson, and an MSc Citizenship and Human Rights supervised by Professor Bill Hughes. My doctoral thesis, Disabled Girls: Being, Doing, Becoming extended key ideas in disability and girls’ studies to conceptualise disabled girls’ exclusion from imagined futures, as well as conceptualising the accumulation of barriers that result in disabled and neurodivergent girls’ exclusion from formal education. I also developed inclusive arts-based and participatory methodologies, innovating zine-making as a mode of inquiry with disabled girls, and ‘choose your own interviews’ to facilitate agency in the interview encounter. My doctoral research was recognised internationally, receiving the Illinois Distinguished Qualitative Dissertation Award for excellence in qualitative research (2024) and was featured in a best practice case study for Scotland’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls.

Research interests

My interdisciplinary research expertise works through and beyond disability, gender, and youth studies, using co-creative and arts-based approaches for social justice. This work is deeply informed by my background as a community development leader in which I co-designed, secured funding for, and led a wide range of social justice projects in Scotland and internationally.

Previous research projects I have led include:

• Repairing the Narrative: Establishing a Research Agenda with Neurodivergent Girls and Young Women in Scotland Through Partnership Development and Arts-based Approaches (2024-2025, PI). This British Academy funded project worked in partnership with staff from two neurodivergent-led organisations and neurodivergent girls and young women in Scotland to co-create priorities for neuro-inclusive research, innovating visible mending as a research method.

• Transforming Disabled Girlhoods: Addressing Educational Inequalities Through Creative and Inclusive Practice, Policy and Research (2024-2025, PI). My ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship achieved four interrelated objectives towards addressing educational inequalities experienced by disabled girls: sharing knowledge through conferences and publications; developing and participating in training; co-designing innovative knowledge exchange resources; and producing publications.

• Crafting a Pathway towards situated, relational and reparative literacy practices. (2023-2026 named Network member). This AHRC Network brought together a group of international and interdisciplinary researchers, practitioners and artists to explore practices for meaning-making in the world that can support more relational and reparative ways of living.

• The Social World of the University: Student belongings and becomings in (post)pandemic times (2022-2025, Co-I). Generating knowledge about marginalised learners’ experiences through zine-making towards improved student support.

• Researcher’s Don’t Cry!? (2021- ongoing. Co-PI) this project involved diverse Early Career Researchers in a zine-making community of practice to understand the role of emotions in research towards the development of inclusive research cultures.

• Quilting for Making Anti-Colonial Futures (2022-2023, Co-I). This project involved assembling and manifesting the diverse pasts, presents, and futures of the School of Education at the University of Glasgow through the method and medium of making a patchwork quilt.

I am currently co-editing two special issues:

Sociological Research Online Making Methodologies: Theoretical, Practical and Ethical Explorations in Creative and Co-Created Sociological Research

Citizenship Social and Economics Education Creative and Arts-Based Approaches: International Perspectives on Participation, Inclusion, and Representation in Education and Social Sciences Research

Impact and Engagement

Impact and engagement are central to my academic practice. I have extensive experience co-producing research and knowledge exchange with disabled people, girls and young women, community organisations, educators, policymakers and third-sector partners. This expertise is undergirded by my significant experience in community development and the strong local and international networks I have nurtured with community organisations for over 20 years. This work has included:

• Contributing to Government advisory processes, for example, a recent Scottish Government policy roundtable on including disabled people in emergency planning.
• Co-producing research with disabled people’s organisations.
• Designing and delivering training, for example feminist disability awareness training for Rape Crisis Scotland
• Creative workshops, film screenings, and funded ESRC Festival of Social Sciences events.

My work frequently spans research, policy, and practice. For example, I have co-authored high impact reports including Scotland in Lockdown: Left Out and Locked Down (2021) commissioned by the Chief Scientist Office of Scotland. In this study I led data-generation with people with learning disabilities, co-designing inclusive interview protocols and practices. I also co-produced an Easy Read policy friending to ensure knowledge generated from the project was accessible to people with learning disabilities. I also co-designed and delivered training to support community organisations to carry out focus groups. My work on this project was noted by policy and practice communities through the invitation to write a best practice case study for Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

My work has featured in national and international media, including the BBC, The Guardian and The Independent, and I am skilled at translating complex research and findings into accessible and engaging content for diverse audiences through interviews and blogs as well as creative outputs like zines, podcasts, and participatory workshops. For example:

• My work in creative and inclusive methods was shared through a podcast appearance for the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration and Education Through Languages and Arts.
• I was recently a post-film discussant at a Disability History month film screening, and have hosted a range of film screenings on disability, gender, and inclusion.

Advisory and leadership roles

I have held academic and external leadership roles including Chair of Postgraduate Programmes Development at Glasgow Caledonian University, and previous to my career in academia I held senior leadership roles in community development organisations for over a decade.

Currently leadership and advisory roles include:

Scottish Graduate School for Social Sciences - Equality Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group Member

Acceleration of Rare Disease Trials (£12m LifeArc Centre) - Social Sciences Advisory Group Member

Gender and Education Association - Executive Member

The International Journal of Creative Methods - Editorial Board

Qualifications

• PhD in Sociology
• MSc Citizenship and Human Rights (Distinction)

Professional memberships

• Gender and Education Association Executive Member

Student education

My teaching expertise spans:

• Disability Studies
• Gender and inequality
• Social justice
• Qualitative and creative research methods
• Public sociology

My teaching is research-led and grounded in contemporary debates, ensuring that students engage with cutting-edge challenges and inclusive perspectives. I have extensive experience teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in sociology, social policy and education across in-person, online, and blended learning modes.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility are core to my academic practice. I embed inclusive pedagogies, accessible assessment design and participatory approaches across my teaching, and have extensive experience supporting disabled, widening participation and international students. My lived experience also supports my approaches in this area. I am a first generation graduate and I studied for my Masters degree part-time distance learning while working full-time, gaining entry through a widening participation route.

My leadership in inclusive and research-informed curriculum design and my dedication to inclusive pedagogies has been recognised through for example:

• Winning the university-wide student nominated Super Support Award at the Glasgow Caledonian University Teaching Awards.
• Invited speaker at the Radical Pedagogies in Higher Education and Community Learning symposium in recognition of my work in advancing feminist pedagogies in the higher education classroom.

Previous to my current role, I taught at the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University, contributing to core methods provision, specialist optional modules, and interdisciplinary MSc programmes. I am also regularly invited to deliver advanced training in creative and inclusive research for external organisations.

Supervision

I am an experienced doctoral research supervisor, committed to providing high-quality supervision and researcher development. My role as a supervisor encompasses supporting the development of my students as research leaders in line with their career aspirations for example, supporting applications for fellowships, grants, placements, and job opportunities. In 2025 I was invited as the keynote speaker for the This PhD Life conference at University of Glasgow in recognition of my contributions to doctoral research culture.

I am keen to supervise students researching topics related to my expertise in disability; neurodivergence; gender; youth; emotions; educational exclusion; identity; research co-creation; arts-based approaches; (post) qualitative appraoches; and autoethnography.

In my role as Affiliate Lecturer in Disability Studies at the University of Glasgow I supervise three PhD students:

Eilidh Anderson Research title: The Long Haul: A Body Mapping Study Investigating the Legislative Gaps for Carers Living and Working with Long Covid

Sih Ying Hsieh Research title: Exploring the Art-informed Approach for People Living with Dementia: Arts on Prescription in Taiwan

Haolin Zhang Research title: Consciousness Awakening: understanding Chinese female students' renegotiated self-identity in intimate relationships after receiving higher education in Scotland

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Disability Studies
• Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies