School of Social and Political Science

Description

Bereavement may be a relatively common childhood experience, but the burden of bereavement and the experience of grief is not equal in society.

Disenfranchised grief occurs when a loss is not openly acknowledged, publicly mourned or socially supported and has important implications for how loss and grief are experienced. Drawing on a range of research, including the only prevalence study of child bereavement in Scotland, and in-depth research with bereaved young men in prison, this seminar will highlight the multiple and persistent experiences of loss and disenfranchisement that affect those who are the most marginalised.

This seminar will highlight how the drivers of disenfranchised grief for young people in prison are located across multiple systems, such as the self, family, institutions and public policy, including the loss, harm and marginalisation caused directly by the justice system itself.

Speaker:

Dr Nina Vaswani is a Senior Research Fellow at the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice, University of Strathclyde, where she oversees the centre’s research programme. Nina’s research interests are the experience and impact of loss, bereavement and trauma in young people and how these experiences interface and shape contact with the justice system. Of particular interest is the overrepresentation of young men in justice settings, and how their exposure to loss, bereavement and trauma might shape their developing masculinities identities, behaviours and outcomes. Nina is also the PI on the Men Minds Project, co-producing new ways of researching mental health with marginalised young men.

Chair:

Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh