Neurodivergence

In this paper I offer some comments on how a neurodivergent liberation theology might speak to ABA therapies. You can download a preprint of the paper using the link above.

It’s a privilege to contribute to a panel at SSCE this year discussing the future of neurodivergent liberation theology/ethics. Here’s the opening comments I’ve shared as my panel contribution: My work in ND liberation theology to date has been as a community organiser and acvitist - I’m a co-convener of the ND staff network at the UOB which supports staff across the spectrum (including PGRs!

This is a talk I gave by request to our library services team as part of their monthly CPD series. I cover some of the basics (in response to some very good questions that the team sent me ahead of time) in terms of vocabulary and framing neurodiversity at work and offer some suggestions for successfully navigating and celebrating diversity in team working.

In this short paper, I continue my work on the phenomenology of autistic subjectivity and concepts of inefability in the context of camoflauging and masking.

This talk is aimed at any neurodivergent students and researchers at UOB starting a research vocation, from undergrads contemplating their dissertation up to PhD researchers working towards their viva. In it, Jeremy Kidwell (associate professor in theological ethics) will talk about how to survive and thrive as a neurodivergent researcher, framed around his own experiences as an autistic scholar and work supporting ND students and colleagues over the past decade.

This presentation was given to a team of terrific wellfare tutors at the University of Birmingham as part of an ongoing conversation the Staff ND network has been having with front-line teams at UOB involved in supporting students and staff with disabilities.

An opening talk given to the College of Arts & Law graduate school executive. This is the start of a working group I’ll be convening which explores how to improve our support and provision for ND postgrad researchers.

Co-hosted with the Imagining Wellbeing project in the, Centre for Urban Wellbeing. This workshop is the first in a series exploring the lived effects of various kinds of environment. We’ll invite you to reflect on how you feel in current spaces on or off campus, hear from others in a panel discussion, and engage with creative ideas for alternative approaches to built environments.

Learn about the double empathy problem. We’ll screen a short (satirical) film just produced by UOB academics and have some discussion over tea and coffee about the complexities of empathy across forms of difference, especially in the context of autism.