This seminar will showcase how a photo novel method was used as part of a larger focus on the social participation of older people with disabilities. Dr. Raymond will provide a brief overview of the participatory action research project and the photo novel. She will then explore the cooperative storytelling processes that allowed for crafting and organizing, within comic’ rhythmic specificities, narratives that would represent significant aspects of social participation for older people with disabilities who were members of the group. Next, she will analyze the process of being photographed – and the main characters of the photo novel – as an opportunity to perform, for public audiences, as well as the aspirations, challenges and complications that arose in framing their participation in society. Finally, she will describe four issues to consider when using this kind of visual method: the expectations regarding level of professionalism of the final product; the delicate balance between “true stories” and collective stories; the photo novel as a life testimony and the horizon for social change embedded in the whole process.

FREE SEMINAR | EVERYONE WELCOME

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Émilie Raymond is a professor at the École de travail social et de criminologie of Université Laval, where she teaches in the fields of collective intervention and social action. She is a researcher at the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en réadaptation et intégration sociale (CIRRIS) and co-leads the research team in partnership Participation sociale et villes inclusives. Ms. Raymond is interested in the social and civic participation of seniors with disabilities. She mainly uses participatory approaches in research and is currently collaborating with associations and community groups interested in becoming more inclusive of people with disabilities.