Dr Zoe Rubenstein joined the University of Birmingham as a Research Fellow in January 2025, in order to work with Professor Jon Glasby on a project entitled, ‘What happens next? What happens to people with learning disabilities and/ or autistic people when they leave ‘long-stay’ hospital settings, and what sorts of support help people to stay out of hospital?’ The project is a collaboration between Birmingham and the rights-based organisation, Changing Our Lives, and will seek to track participants with learning disabilities and/or autistic people, and the staff supporting them, for two years following their discharge from hospital. We are hoping to understand what kind of support helps people to live ‘ordinary lives’ in the community. Alongside it Dr Zoe Rubenstein works at a Disabled People’s Organisation in London as a mentor for trainee disability rights advocates.
Before joining Birmingham, Dr Zoe Rubenstein conducted an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Brighton during which she built on the theoretical contributions of my PhD to interpretive policy analysis and criminology. Dr Zoe Rubenstein is motivated by projects which allow her to contribute towards promoting citizenship and tackling marginalisation through engaging in inclusive practices, influencing policy and interrogating policy processes.