Jessica Rutherford, a final year PhD student in the School of Design and Creative Arts, has found her research leading her in new directions recently and is beginning a new venture launching a podcast!

Jessica’s research focusses on the use of the animation production process as a therapeutic approach to learning for children and young people effected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), a condition still unknown to many that Jessica herself was unaware of when beginning her research journey. Working with such an unrecognised population lead to Jessica becoming fully embedded in the world of FASD in order to gain a thorough and true understanding of the condition to support her theoretical knowledge. 

Jessica is now in the process of launching the UK’s first podcast dedicated to FASD with her friend and colleague Clare Devanney-Glynn. Spotlight on FASD aims to raise awareness of FASD, highlight the risk of drinking alcohol during pregnancy, share strategies around parenting and education, and have open conversations around the real life experiences of living with the condition. Jessica and Clare share the facts and figures, ups and downs of a condition thought to be around 5% more prevalent than Autism in the UK and do so with the constant message “there is no blame or shame as we (society) simply didn’t understand the harm alcohol could cause during pregnancy, but now we do. So let’s open the conversation and do better.” 

Episode 1 officially launches on Friday 16^th October and is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as on YouTube as a webcast. Just search @SpotlightonFASD on social media to hear more about this fascinating topic and to help shine a spotlight on FASD!