Ceramic sculpture

    S H U L A   R A M O N

I’ve lived in Cambridge, UK, for the last 20 years, and like doing so. Cambridge is small and pretty, offering a lot of cultural activities that I do join in from time to time.

I like to travel, mainly to historical cities, and confess that I enjoy spending time in museums and old buildings. I have lived half of my life in another country, and worked for brief periods in a number of other countries. I feel this does give me a wider perspective on life than most people around me have.

I worked for some years as a social worker prior to becoming an academic by chance, rather than by planning. I like being an academic and researcher mainly because I can choose the themes to focus on, and because even when there are funding obstacles there is always an element one can develop further through research.

I enjoy teaching – at present I teach an MSc online on mental health recovery and social inclusion to students who come from different professional and life experiences. I also mentor a number of Ph.D. students, which is much more demanding work than straight forward teaching.

The key areas of my current social work research and commitments include media representation of social work, social work clients and social problems, involving service users in research and education, and a lot of mental health work which is very relevant to social work (e.g. shared decision making). The issue of the impact of political/armed conflict on social work has been a concern of mine for quite some time, and I continue to be engaged with it in a variety of ways.

This Ceramic sculpture is made as a mosaic of small blue and white circles put together to create a peaceful, eye catching, construction. It has been made by people with learning disabilities in Cambridge.

I have chosen this Ceramic sculpture because …

… It symbolises for me the often neglected abilities of people with learning disabilities, their strengths, and ability to give to the rest of us. I am committed to the promotion of the strengths approach in social work and in mental health. The object has a central place in our living room, and visitors often ask about it and share with me the pleasure it gives.