Ceci n’est pas un blog post
I didn’t have time to do a blog post today. I was busy making this instead, for my child’s 11th birthday. Sometimes, family comes first.
Lessons from the Editorial Desk
Episode 6 in the June Blogs series aims to cast some light onto one mysterious aspect of academic publishing – the role of the editor. About a year ago I was approached by the editors of Autism: International Journal of Research and Practice to see if I would like to become an action editor for…
Time to Say Yes
Blog number 5 in the June Blog series… Last year – by which I mean, from May 2019 – April 2020 inclusive, I tried to say No. I’ve talked before about how successful that was. The patterns in this interim blog post largely were sustained to the end of the Year of No, though of…
on Promotions and Professors
WARNING: this blog post is immensely self-indulgent. This is the fourth post in my June Blogs series, and the first one I’ve had to write under real time pressure. I’ve got half an hour to get this written, posted, tweeted and also make some edit’s to yesterday’s post on Neurodivergence and Neurodiversity. Coincidentally, this…
Neurodiverse or Neurodivergent? It’s more than just grammar
Although Judy Singer coined the term more than two decades ago, the language of neurodiversity is still not being used in a standard way, neither in the community, nor in practice, nor in research. One particular mis-usage – at least in my opinion, is the word “neurodiverse” to describe a single individual. For example, a…
How to be Anti-Racist as a White Scientist in the UK
I’ve been planning this blog post for the last few days and I confess I feel uncomfortable about it. It feels inappropriate for me, someone who has indupitably benefitted from the racism baked in to the system, to speak up against it. I’m nervous that this post will make someone else’s trauma all about me…
June Blogs: a commitment to daily writing
Good Morning. Since writing this blog nine days ago, there has been an explosion in policy brutality in the USA, an expression of both systemic, structural and particular, individual racism. The Black Lives Matter movement is at the forefront of opposing this. In an effort to contribute helpfully to this movement my first “proper” blog…
Nine Months of Saying No – an update
It’s been about nine months since my Year of No started, in May 2019, and I thought it was time to review progress. In fact, my intention had been to review progress at the half-way point – around November 2019. The fact that this blog is coming three months behind schedule probably tells you a…
Reflections on a Study Term in the DART lab
Today we have a guest blog from our visiting PhD student, Jackie Ryan. I recently had the pleasure of a four-month study term at the DART from September to December 2019. I am an autistic PhD student from the University of Alberta, Edmonton. I am studying Rehabilitation Science (a field that includes occupational therapy, speech…
Reflections on a Tweet
Today we have a guest blog from visiting PhD student, Jackie Ryan. Recently I tweeted about a project that I am excited to be working on with Sue Fletcher-Watson in the DART lab. I have been on twitter for 10 years, but with a very quiet presence, mainly retweeting interesting posts. Of course, I mentioned…