Starting my Masters at the University of Sunderland feels like rolling into a new chapter that I have been edging towards for a long time. After years of working in practice and navigating systems that shape people’s lives in ways that often go unseen, I wanted to study inequality in a deeper and more grounded way. I wanted to understand the structures that sit behind everyday experiences the ones that open doors for some and quietly close them for others.
One of our early lectures explored deprivation in a broad social and economic sense. That caught my interest straight away because it linked so closely to something I already understood from practice which is occupational deprivation. I had a working knowledge of it, but hearing deprivation discussed outside an occupational therapy context helped me step back and see how many layers sit beneath it. It reminded me that people do not face barriers because of personal failings. They face them because systems attitudes and expectations often decide what is possible in the first place.
Moving towards the first assessment a presentation I realised I had a chance to spend time exploring occupational deprivation more fully. I wanted to look at why deprivation persists across different groups and places and how it quietly shapes the rhythms of daily life. This took me into the work of justice theorists such as Rawls Sen and Skeggs. Their ideas were new to me but they helped things fall into place. Rawls made me think about fairness. Sen made me think about real freedoms and what people can actually do in practice. Skeggs made me think about how society places value on some identities and stories and ignores others. Bringing these ideas into my presentation helped me see occupational justice in a wider context.
Preparing the presentation helped me understand that occupational deprivation is not only a professional concept. It is deeply connected to wider social patterns. Class influences what opportunities people can access from childhood. Racism and cultural prejudice shape whose occupations are recognised as meaningful. Ableism affects everything from transport to education to how people are spoken to. Gendered expectations influence time energy and the ability to take part in desired occupations. Rural living often limits access to services technology and spaces. When these inequalities overlap they intensify each other and create even stronger barriers. All of this affects what people can do and how they see themselves.
Creating the presentation gave me a way to bring these layers together. It allowed me to explore why deprivation is so often misunderstood as a personal problem when in reality it is shaped by social and political structures. It helped me put words to something I have always known through experience that inequality is lived through the occupations people are blocked from doing and the spaces they are excluded from entering.
Presenting my work today felt like the true beginning of my Masters journey. It gave me space to connect my lived experience my practice knowledge and the new ideas I am studying. It reminded me why I chose this course. I want to understand inequality not just to speak about it but to challenge it. I want to strengthen my practice and use this learning to keep pushing for environments and systems where occupation is not restricted to only a few.
Rolling into this Masters has already shifted how I see the world. It has shown me how much more there is to uncover and how important it is to keep linking individual stories with the structures that shape them. This feels like the start of something that will stay with me for a long time.
