Public Health and Sport Sciences

Dr Rebecca Yeo

Dr Rebecca Yeo

Research Fellow

 R.Yeo@exeter.ac.uk

 

Overview

Rebecca is a researcher activist with more than 20 years’ involvement in the disabled people’s movement. Rebecca’s work has explored the causes, impact and possible ways to address intersectional injustices associated with disability and forced migration in the UK. Her work on issues of disability and immigration has found that the social model of disability can be adapted and extended to focus on the disabling impact of struggles faced by people in the asylum system who are denied basic services (https://disability-migration.org.uk/).

Rebecca is now working on the ‘Sensing Climate’ project (www.sensing-climate.com). As it becomes increasingly apparent that new approaches are needed to address the climate emergency, it is also clear that the disproportionate impact of extreme weather events on disabled people cannot be addressed simply by inclusion in business as usual. Sensing Climate aims to find out from disabled people living in a wide range of circumstances about people’s needs, experiences and insights in relation to climate change.

Building on Rebecca’s previous work as part of Disability Murals (www.disabilitymurals.org.uk), the project team will be working with artist Andrew Bolton to create painted murals that bring people’s key ideas to public spaces. The murals enable people who contribute to the research to have a central role in shaping how the central messages are promoted. In these ways, the insights of disabled people can contribute to developing more effective and equitable response to climate change.

Qualifications

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Research

Research projects

https://www.ecehh.org/research/disability-inclusive-climate-action/

Ongoing work on issues of disability and forced migration https://disability-migration.org.uk/

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Publications

Journal articles

Yeo R (In Press). Chronic Poverty and Disability. SSRN Electronic Journal
Yeo R (2020). The regressive power of labels of vulnerability affecting disabled asylum seekers in the UK. DISABILITY & SOCIETY, 35(4), 676-681.  Author URL.
Yeo R (2017). The deprivation experienced by disabled asylum seekers in the United Kingdom: symptoms, causes, and possible solutions. DISABILITY & SOCIETY, 32(5), 657-677.  Author URL.
Yeo R, Moore K (2003). Including disabled people in poverty reduction work: "Nothing about us', without us". WORLD DEVELOPMENT, 31(3), 571-590.  Author URL.

Chapters

Yeo R, Afeworki Abay R (2024). Colonial and Ableist Constructions of 'Vulnerability' shaping the Lives of Disabled Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the UK and Germany. In Afeworki Abay R, Soldatic K (Eds.) Intersectional Colonialities: Embodied Colonial Violence and Practices of Resistance at the Axis of Disability, Race, Indigeneity, Class, and Gender, London: Routledge.
Yeo R (2017). DISABLED ASYLUM SEEKERS AS EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS IN a BROADER SYSTEMIC AGENDA OF INEQUALITY. In  (Ed) Inequalities in the UK: New Discourses, Evolutions and Actions, 251-268. Abstract.
Yeo R (2017). Murals as a tool for action research. In  (Ed) Murals and Tourism: Heritage, Politics and Identity, 275-285.

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External Engagement and Impact

Media Coverage

Yeo, R., 2023. Disablement and resistance in the British immigration system. Migration Mobilities Bristol. Available at: https://migration.bristol.ac.uk/2023/05/23/disablement-and-resistance-in-the-british-immigration-system/.

Yeo, R., 2022. The power of collaborative art in research for social change.  Migration Mobilities Bristol. 8 March 2022.  Available at: https://migration.bristol.ac.uk/2022/03/08/the-power-of-collaborative-art-in-research-for-social-change/.

Yeo, R., and Dupont, P.L., 2019.  Distinctions of vulnerability: Enabling protection or undermining rights-based achievements?  Available at: https://ethosjustice.wordpress.com/2019/04/04/distinctions-of-vulnerability-enabling-protection-or-undermining-rights-based-achievements/

Yeo, R., 2018.  Before he was murdered, here is what a disabled asylum seeker had to say about Britain’s ‘hostile environment’.  The Conversation.  29 June 2018.  (republished by The Independent and The Metro).  Available at: https://theconversation.com/before-he-was-murdered-here-is-what-a-disabled-asylum-seeker-had-to-say-about-britains-hostile-environment-98908

Yeo, R., 2018.  Submission to the Permanent People’s Tribunal Hearing on violations of the Human Rights of Migrant and Refugee Peoples 3rd & 4th November.

Yeo, R., 2018.  Two years after Kamil Ahmad’s murder, there is cause for hope and anger.  Bristol Cable.  20 August 2018.

Yeo, R. A. 2017.  Kamil Ahmad: failed by the Home Office, murdered in Britain.  The Guardian.  18 October 2017.  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/18/murdered-asylum-seeker-kamil-ahmad-failed-britain.

Yeo, R., 2016.  Prioritisation of disabled Syrian migrants: a progressive move or reinforcement of a toxic hierarchy of entitlement?  Migration Pulse.  March 2016.

Yeo, R., 2013.  When Civvy Street isn't safe.  Open Democracy.  https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/shine-a-light/when-civvy-street-isnt-safe/

Yeo, R., 2011.  Freed after public outcry.  New Internationalist https://newint.org/blog/2011/01/24/sivas-story/

Yeo, R., 2010.  Afghanistan is a safe country... New Internationalist.  https://newint.org/blog/editors/2010/06/04/afghanistan-deportat/

Yeo, R., 2009.  Public and community art is being used in Bolivia to convey the priorities and aspirations of disabled people.  New Internationalist.  https://newint.org/features/special/2009/10/05/bolivian-murals

Yeo, R., 2006.  “You BUY clay?  But clay is just there!” Environmentally sustainable pottery in Raqchi, Peru.  Ceramic Review.  (221).  https://www.ceramicreview.com/issues/ceramic-review-issue-221/

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