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Dr Ella Houston

SENIOR LECTURER IN DISABILITY AND EDUCATION
Disability Studies
0151 291 3032
houstoe@hope.ac.uk

I am a Senior Lecturer in Disability Studies, core member of the Centre for Culture & Disability Studies and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. As well as leading our Level I Special Educational Needs & Disability Studies single honors and Level H 'Researching the Representation of Disability in Popular Culture' courses and managing work placements for students, I chair the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Enhancement sub-committee in the School of Social Sciences. Since 2018 I have co-led the university's Academic Literacies Community of Practice. 
 
My research, which is based in Cultural Disability Studies, explores representations of disability in advertising. My recent publications include:
- Houston, E. (2023) Sad Cases and Success Stories: Representations of Multiple Sclerosis in Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising. Societies. DOI: 10.3390/soc13070158 [open access].
- Houston, E. and Haller, B. (2022) Advertising and Diversity: The Framing of Disability in Promotional Spaces. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. DOI: 10.3828/jlcds.2022.29. 
- Houston, E. (2021) Polysemic Interpretations: Examining how women with visual impairments incorporate, resist, and subvert advertising content. Journal of Advertising, 13(1). 
- Houston, E. (2020) Taking a Feminist Disability Studies Approach to Fundamental British Values: Do "Fundamental" "British" Values Encourage the Appreciation of Marginalized Identity Groups, or Lead to the Performance of Inclusion? International Review of Qualitative Research, 13(1). 
- Houston, E. (2019) Featuring Disabled Women in Advertisements: The commodification of diversity? The Routledge Companion to Disability & Media. Ellis, K., Goggin, G., Haller, B. and Curtis, R. (eds). New York: Routledge. 
- Houston, E. (2019) Risky representation: the portrayal of women with mobility impairment in twenty-first-century advertising. Disability & Society, 34(5). 
- Houston, E. (2018) The impact of advertisements on women's psychological and emotional states: Exploring navigation and resistance of disabling stereotypes. Media, Culture & Society, 41(6). 
 
I am a trustee for Daisy Inclusive U.K. - a charity that offers community, education and employment support to disabled people. I am also a mentor for The Girls' Network - a national organisation that offers mentoring and networking opportunities to girls from the least advantaged communities.