Vera Kubenz she/they

The philosopher D. R. Parton said:
Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition
And yawn and stretch and try to come to life
Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumpin'
Out on the street, the traffic starts jumpin'
With folks like me on the job from 9 to 5.

1/2

I've thought about this moment a lot over the last few years but never thought I would be submitting while in a paediatrics assessment waiting room, waiting for my 9-year-old to be examined for suspected appendicitis... but then nothing about this PhD has been done in easy mode 🤷‍♀️

Thesis cover page with University of Birmingham Crest: "THE POLITICS OF PARKING: DISABLED PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCES OF EVERYDAY OPPRESSION THROUGH ENCOUNTERS WITH STRANGERS IN ACCESSIBLE PARKING SPACES by VERA ISABELLA KUBENZ A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Social Policy, Sociology, and Criminology School of Social Policy and Society College of Social Sciences University of Birmingham September 2025

It's done!

After four years (end of my minimum period), I have just submitted my PhD thesis on disabled people's encounters in accessible parking spaces 🥳♿🅿️
#DisabilitySky #DisabilityStudies #BlueBadge #PhD #PhDlife

Gaza student hoping for Glasgow PhD in urgent plea as family blocked from entering UK A student from Gaza hoping to study in Scotland has issued a plea to the UK Government urging them not to "make her choose" between her…

Speaking from Gaza, Manar Al Houbi told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show she was informed just days before her evacuation from Gaza that her family would not be allowed to come with her – despite the Labour Government allowing other students' families to enter the UK.

We call on Jo Grady and UCU SMT to: • Enter negotiations with Unite UCU without preconditions. • Stop the threat of punitive deductions for ASOS - this breaches UCU and TUC policy and only serves to undermine all of us, not least those UCU members currently involved in legal test cases against punitive deductions after taking lawful industrial action. Signed, 25, no, 37, no, now 46 UCU branch committees (and still counting)

With another 9 @ucu.org.uk branches now calling on UCU to do the right thing we wonder if @drjogrady.bsky.social is listening to her members.

Great to hear a robust challenge to DWPs misleading stats on out of work benefits. Thank you as ever @benbgeiger.bsky.social

When we talk about how "Magneto was right," this is why -- here he is, correctly predicting how this is going to go. It starts with dehumanizing; then that leads to tracking; tracking leads to arrests; arrests lead to camps; camps lead to genocide.

Oh nothing gets racists more puce than having a better car than them. I have STORIES

Just today Anas tweeted this:

The #IDF has just murdered #AnasAlSharif & several #AlJazeera colleagues in a targeted strike on their tent. After weeks of harassment.

What consequences?

@peninternational.bsky.social @indexoncensorship.org @ifjglobal.bsky.social @cpjunion.bsky.social @nujofficial.bsky.social

I do, will send you an email to the reading group email address

As a disabled activitist grieving for the deaths to come because of Wednesday's vote, who's had to see the front page media headlines saying we *still* are getting too much, this is the true face of Britain. They want us dead. We're inconvenient and unprofitable. Glad JM has joined us.

Read the thread and don’t be an asshole! #SupportTransKids (& adults)

Men deserve safety too you absolute ghoul

Incontrovertible evidence, now, of *police* investigating families supporting their kids with gender affirming healthcare in the UK. For trying to do the best for your child, following best practice in most of the world, here you get a visit from the police.

Thank you, Wes Streeting.

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits Four disabled Labour MPs stood up to their government’s attempts to reduce vital disability benefits, despite ministers’ chaotic last-ditch concessions to rebels that removed a significant chunk of…

Four disabled Labour MPs stood up to their government’s attempts to reduce vital disability benefits, despite ministers’ chaotic last-ditch concessions to rebels that removed a significant chunk of their cuts bill.
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/four-disable...

My new paper in @urbanstudiesjournal.com
highlights how having their legitimacy challenged in accessible parking space can actively stop disabled people from using these spaces, meaning there is no such thing as an 'accessible' space.

Full paper is open access below ⤵️
#DisabilitySky

🏙️ NEW article in our Special Issue on "Infrastructural encounters: Disability in urban lives"

Take a look 👇🧵

#UrbanStudies

Funny how they went for the Black and Irish bands isn’t it (white Irish people: welcome back!)

‘There’s nothing wrong with you’: The making of disability through encounters in accessible parking spaces - Vera Isabella Kubenz, 2025 This paper explores what constitutes an ‘accessible’ space by examining encounters in accessible parking spaces during which disabled people are accused of ‘fak...

A 2nd paper from my PhD on #BlueBadge parking encounters is now published in @urbanstudiesjournal.com
This one focuses on 'faking' encounters and how no space is truly accessible while disabled people are under constant surveillance
Available open access here:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

My first paper, published just three weeks ago, focused on affect and emotion management in accessible parking spaces
bsky.app/profile/vera...

‘There’s nothing wrong with you’: The making of disability through encounters in accessible parking spaces - Vera Isabella Kubenz, 2025 This paper explores what constitutes an ‘accessible’ space by examining encounters in accessible parking spaces during which disabled people are accused of ‘fak...

A 2nd paper from my PhD on #BlueBadge parking encounters is now published in @urbanstudiesjournal.com
This one focuses on 'faking' encounters and how no space is truly accessible while disabled people are under constant surveillance
Available open access here:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Stephen Kinnock is lying. People don't lose PIP when they get a job, its not an out of work benefit & plenty of people on PIP work

Kinnock knows this. What he's doing is part of a wider govt strategy to paint disabled people as shirkers & scroungers stealing from working people

It's not MP's Starmer needs to talk to it's disabled people and our orgs, the fact his entire discussion with MP's of his own party shows he has learnt nothing. He is playing politics with our lives and does not even respect us enough to involve us.
Kill The Bill.

.@vickyfoxcroftmp.bsky.social’s resignation is a stark warning. An MP with a decent knowledge of the welfare system & employment struggles of Disabled people sees the truly devastating impact of the proposed cuts – and acted on it.

@johnpring.bsky.social #TakingThePIP

Beyoncé performing in a white cowboy outfit with her daughter Blue Ivy

Karen O with a spiky helmet, fringed cape, huge KO letters on her front performing with her arms stretched out

I wrote about how two icons, Beyoncé and Karen O, helped me through the ordeal of hitting puberty in the early 2000s for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social

Beyoncé, Karen O and getting past the male gaze

app.theneweuropean.co.uk/story/137746...

I considered quitting 2 weeks into my PhD after being told I'd have to sit in a building off campus because my school couldn't meet my accessibility needs: a chair with armrests plus a desk not directly underneath a light. I complained. PGR lead told me to calm down bc they were "trying to help me".

EHRC Drops Workplace Toilet Advice Amid Legal Threat - Law360 Britain's equal rights watchdog has dropped its advice to employers that they must provide single-sex toilets in the wake of a landmark U.K. Supreme Court decision in the face of a court challenge.

None of those newspapers (or the BBC) that gleefully ran stories when the EHRC gave trans people a shoeing will now report on the EHRC admitting they (and hence those stories) were wrong. Are those outlets craven - or dishonest?

Thank goodness for the legal press. www.law360.com/articles/235...

Quakers speak out against proposed terrorist proscription of Palestine Action Quakers in Britain have voiced deep concerns about the government’s plan to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000.

We have deep concerns about government plans to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

Nonviolent protest, and even acts of vandalism, should not be labelled as terrorism. Civil disobedience has been a powerful force for positive social change.

www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...

You can repair a plane. You can replace a broken window. But you can’t bring back the dead.

We must defend the right to protest.

Solidarity with Palestine Action 🇵🇸