Barbara Gibson, PhD, MSc, BMR (PT)

Professor
Department of Physical Therapy
University of Toronto
160-500 University Avenue
Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1V7
Email: barbara.gibson@utoronto.ca
@BarbPTToronto

Websites

To view Barbara’s profile within the Department of Physical Therapy, please click here.

Barbara’s work with the Bloorview Research Institute in the Critical Disability and Rehabilitation Studies (CDARS) unit is available to view here.

Other Appointments

Senior Scientist, Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto
CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, McMaster University, Hamilton
Person Centred Research Centre, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand

Biosketch

Barbara Gibson’s research investigates how social, cultural, and institutional practices intersect in producing health, inclusion/exclusion, and identity with disabled children and youth. The aim is to improve the wellbeing of disabled young people through a critical interrogation of key concepts (e.g. disability/normalcy, in/dependence, quality of life) underpinning children’s rehabilitation and societal understandings of disability. Barbara’s work is interdisciplinary and intersectional; drawing upon sociological studies of health, bioethics, posthuman scholarships, and critical disability studies. Her experience with qualitative methods includes use of participant generated video accounts (video ‘diaries”), go-along interviews, participant observation and creative visual and interview methods in research with disabled children.

Barbara received her Bachelor of Medical Rehabilitation in Physical Therapy from the University of Manitoba in 1986 and her PhD in the Collaborative Programs in Bioethics and Health Care Technology and Place at the Institute of Medical Science University of Toronto in 2006.

Research Interests

Barbara’s research interests include: disability; intersectionality of gender, disability, life stage and identities; critical rehabilitation studies; bioethics; qualitative methods; posthumanism; and children and youth.

Sample Publications

Books/Chapters

Montforte J, Gibson BE, Smith B, Goodley D. Exercise, rehabilitation and posthuman disability studies: Four responses. In B Powis, J Brighton and D Howe, editors. Researching Disability Sport: Theory, Method, Practice. London: Routledge. Dec 2022. Chapter 12 (ebook). DOI: 10.4324/9781003153696-15

Gibson, BE. Rehabilitation: A post-critical approach. Boca Raton (United States): CRC Press; 2016

Papers

Thille P, Abrams T, Gibson BE. Enacting objects and subjects in a children’s rehabilitation clinic: Default and shifting ontological politics of muscular dystrophy care. Health. 2022 Jul: 26 (4): 495-511.

Mosleh, D., Gibson B.E. Abnormal-Becoming-Normal: Conceptualizations of Childhood Disability in Children’s Rehabilitation Textbooks. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research.2022 April: 24(1), 122–135.

Jóhannsdóttir A.,Egilson S., Gibson B.E. What’s shame got to do with it: The importance of affect in critical disability studies. Disability and Society. 2021 Oct; 36 (3): 342-357

Gibson B.E., Fadyl J., Terry G., Waterworth K., Mosleh D., Kayes N.M. A posthuman decentring of person-centred care. Health Sociology Review. Special issue: Progressing critical posthuman perspectives in health sociology. 2021 Nov: 30 (3): 292-307.

Abrams T, Thille P, Gibson BE. Disability, affect theory, and the politics of breathing: The case of muscular dystrophy. Subjectivity. 2021 Dec: 14: 201-217.

Gibson B.E., Terry G., Setchell J., Bright F.A.S., Cummins C., Kayes N.M. The micro-politics of caring: Tinkering with person-centred rehabilitation. Disability & Rehabilitation Special Issue: Ultrabilitation. 2020 June: 42 (11): 1529-1538.

Teachman, G., McDonough, P., Macarthur, C., & Gibson, B. E. Interrogating inclusion with youth who use augmentative and alternative communication. Sociology of Health and Illness. 2020 Jun: 42(5): 1108-1122.

Fadyl J., Cunningham H., Nakarada-Kordic I., Reay S., Waters T., *Waterworth K., Gibson B.E. Settled and unsettling: Design and flows of affect in a hospital waiting area. Design for Health. 2020 Apr: 4:1, 63-81.

Gibson B.E. Worlding disability: Categorizations, labels, and the making of people. American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience. 2019 Jun: 10(2):85-96.

Setchell J, Abrams T, McAdam LC, Gibson B.E. Cheer* in Health Care Practice: What It Excludes and Why It Matters. Qualitative Health Research. 2019 Sept; 29(13): 1890-1903

Abrams, T., *Setchell J, *Thille, P, Mistry, B., Gibson, B.E. Affect, intensity, and moral assemblage in rehabilitation practice, BioSocieties. 2019 14(1), 23-45.