Nostalgia Interviews With Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Emma Astra, based in Leicester, who is writing a Diary of a Disabled PhD student. We talk about pilgrimage journeys and the notion of doing a PhD as a pilgrimage journey. Emma talks about her chronic illness and how it impacts on her ability to travel to places. We learn about her three wheelchairs and all the different makes and models she has had to navigate, and Emma talks about an artist who is making a non-disabled person feel like they are in the shoes of a disabled person. Emma also reflects on how technology has opened up a whole new world for disabled people. We learn how the return to physical meetings and classes has posed a problem for Emma, and we discuss how technology will evolve post-Covid. We talk about the days of queuing up to use the phone and renting TVs, and Emma shares a wonderful anecdote about hiding from the TV rental man. We learn about Emma’s PhD and how she has done something really innovative. She talks about referencing academics who wrote about a counc