In this short talk, Wendy will share her own experience of being a member of faculty while being in active addiction, and while being in recovery. She will discuss the ways that stigma prevents help-seeking, both in general and in her own case. She will outline progress towards more Recovery Friendly Universities in the UK and explain why the UK looks to North America and Canada for inspiration. She will assess the value to universities, and by extension to wider society, of supporting and celebrating community members with addiction recovery backgrounds, and she will argue that this work is the next frontier in widening participation.
Professor Wendy Dossett is a Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Chester in the UK. Her religion specialism is Buddhism, and her PhD explored Japanese Pure land Buddhism. In more recent years, she has undertaken research amongst communities who have experienced recovery from addictions. Her award-winning research project, The Higher Power Project, sought to understand the language and experiences of people in recovery from addictions who use the Twelve Step Programme. She recently retired from teaching but is still active in research and advocacy. Collegiate Recovery is in its infancy in the UK, and Wendy is the probably the first member of the UK professoriate to be openly in recovery from addiction.
