The Plural Research Consortium is intended to be a space for plurals, multiples, and people with DID/OSDD involved in academic research to work towards connecting, collaborating, & continuing research by and for plurals.
We believe that plural folks in academia – not only involved through community-participatory methods, but also as researchers directing the entire process of academic knowledge production – results in phenomenologically accurate and community driven results. Yet, plural researchers are infrequent within academia. Mad, mentally ill, neurodiverse and disabled folks face structural and social barriers to holding positions in academia and creating institutionally-recognized knowledge about our own experiences. This group serves to pool our knowledge and resources to create an atmosphere of mutual support for plural academics navigating a field that can be unwelcoming towards our community.
There are many brilliant independent projects run by community members gathering knowledge about the plural experience – we want to support these projects and help their authors gain access to academic journals if they wish.
We host monthly drop-in group meetings over zoom to:
- Invite collaboration
- Receive feedback on our work
- Discuss academic publications
- Foster peer support
- Plan for and reflect upon conferences
- Identify future areas of research
Asynchronous connections are supported through a closed discord server.
Alongside large-group meetings, we host small focus-groups dedicated to specific subjects, which may be started by members at any time. These may be, but are not limited to, discussing research projects, data analysis, intersections with other identity groups (i.e. autism), and auxiliary questions (i.e. how to best take the demographic information of plurals).
All forms of knowledge production within our community are valued, and many of us engage in knowledge production outside of academia. We hold two truths: that the academic institution is inherently part of the fabric of systemic oppression, and that it will not fall tomorrow. We navigate academia in an attempt to make the landscape better for the people and communities existing and accessing care now.