Following a late diagnosis of autism (just after completing my undergraduate degree), I’ve taken an increasing interest in narratives of neurodiversity, both from a day-to-day standpoint and in light of my academic work on the premodern world. This translates most directly into my involvement supporting autistic students at the University of Exeter and beyond, lending a hand as we collectively learn to navigate the immensely satisfying, but occasionally baffling, world of higher education.

Please contact me if you’d be interested in collaborating in this area.

Student Support

I’ve been a regular at the University of Exeter’s Transition Days for students with Autistic Spectrum Conditions for the best part of a decade, first as a current student and more recently as a member of staff. In this capacity, I’ve taken part in (and moderated) student Q&As, led campus tours, and demystified the various forms of academic student support. A writeup of this work has been published in the sector platform WonkHE. On a day-to-day basis, I offer support to neurodivergent students through the Access to Academia Mentoring Scheme, run by the Success For All team within the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

In 2023, I contributed to the University of Exeter’s Autism&Uni site, writing two pieces on the topic of ‘asking for help at university’ that dealt with the ‘how’ and the ‘who’ respectively. My student story is also available.

I’ve been very fortunate to collaborate with brilliant people over the years. My PhD experience as a neurodivergent PGR formed part of the basis of an episode of the University of Exeter Doctoral College’s R, D and the In-Betweens podcast, with key takeaways being published in THE Campus. In 2024, I appeared on the ‘Voices in Transition’ podcast to discuss how the sector welcomes neurodivergent students, look at what newcomers might find challenging, and offer some top tips.

Academic Work

Alongside these more day-to-day concerns, I’ve also begun to do academic work at the intersection of medieval studies and neurodiversity studies. This is a rapidly-growing area, and started (for me) with a presentation organised for Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2023. In it, I talked about the efficacy and ethics of retrospective diagnosis: can, and should, we label medieval figures as neurodivergent? An edited version of this talk has since been been published Open Access in the collaborative volume, Towards an Accessible Academy: Perspectives from Disabled Medievalists, and I discussed my chapter as part of a special episode of the Multicultural Middle Ages podcast.

I’m keen to return to working in this area in the near future.