Resilience as Resistance: Roxy Murray
In celebration of Disability Pride Month, we highlight the words of the disability activist Roxy Murray. This week, we reflect on Murray's perspective on the multifaceted nature of resilience, which is often intersectional and built through community and connection. Her resilience isn't passive but challenges the status quo:
Fashion, Advocacy and Fearless Storytelling
Roxy Murray is a podcaster and advocate for Multiple Sclerosis. Blending her advocacy with her background in fashion, she is a trailblazer in heightening the visibility of people of colour and ensuring their increased inclusion in the MIS narrative. She has also been called the "Multiple Sclerosis Fashionista" and has helped people transition to mobility aids in style. She is the founder of The Sick and Sickening podcast, known for detailing raw and unrestrained stories that share the reality of living with a disability. She has spoken on topics such as pain management, sexual health and body positivity. She has fought for the sexual rights of disabled people, spreading awareness of the way disabled people are "desexualised, ignored and under-represented" in healthcare and wider society.
Intersectional Leadership and the Power of Collective Resilience
Murray's experiences with intersectionality as a queer, disabled woman of colour give her a unique perspective. She highlights that for her, resilience doesn't have to be something she experiences and endures alone - it is something that occurs in a larger, wider community. Resilience is also not about passively enduring systems or experiences, but taking steps to challenge the status quo, especially when it maintains the marginalisation of certain groups.
Murray's words align with the Laidlaw value of being #Determined and the Oxford Character Project Leadership Virtue of #Collaboration. Being determined means staying resilient even in challenging circumstances. Collaboration means collectively maintaining this resilience through community and connection, rather than enduring alone.
A Call to Reflect
We invite you to reflect on Roxy Murray's powerful leadership insights. Share your thoughts in the comments: How do you build resilience in your life—and how can community shape that process?
Explore Our Scholars' Work in Disability and Inclusion Research and Leadership in Action Projects
⚡Olive Watt - Immobilised: The Impact of Austerity and COVID-19 Policies on Disabled Experiences of Social Exclusion in Britain since 2010
⚡Annabelle Whittle - Beyond Access: Disabled Children's Experiences of Belonging in UK Cathedral Choirs
⚡Hao Tian - Legal Liability in AI-Related Workplace Age and Disability Discrimination in the US
⚡Juliet Leigh Cabraja - Reviewing Peer Support Groups offered by TCD's Disability Service
⚡Mallika Khathuria - Assistive Technology for Disabled Children