Neurodivergent people deviate from the norms of the dominant society in terms of sensory processing, focus, and social needs. Yet universities have always been neurodiverse places - places where people with very different cognitive and social styles come together. Academic structures typically have a lovehate relationship with neurodivergent individuals: Their "creative" ways of thinking are sometimes celebrated as genius, sometimes devalued, their hyperfocus is found sometimes inspiring, sometimes too obsessive. A common coping mechanism for neurodivergent individuals is "masking" - a cognitively exhausting over-adaptation to the neuronormative environment. As a result, neurodivergent academics often remain invisible and don’t (feel safe to) communicate their needs.
This talk is aimed at both neurodivergent researchers and their neurotypical colleagues. It discusses, among other things, the following questions:

• What is the "right" degree of unmasking and radical honesty in the academic workplace?
• How open should I be about my neurodivergence at work?
• How can I prevent overloads, shutdowns, and meltdowns caused by performance pressure, conference travel, and shared offices?
• As a neurotypical person, how can I help my neurodivergent colleagues feel more secure in the workplace?
• Should I address my colleagues' neurodivergence, or is it better to avoid the topic?

Speaker
Emil Eva Rosina (they/he) is a linguist and philosopher and is currently based
in Brno (Czech Republic). They work at the intersection of philosophy of
language, philosophy of mind, semantics and pragmatics. Their publications
are on memory reports, plural semantics, gender predicates and autistic
masking. They are a self-advocate autist with a special interest in people which
they like to pursue mostly by themselves. Since 2024, they have been giving
talks on neurodivergence in academic and medical contexts which focus on
issues around masking, performance pressure, neurodivergent
communication, and social normativity.
https://emiling.info/

Dial-in link via ZOOM:
https://uni-frankfurt.zoomx.
de/j/61131102993?pwd=DDotUMQzpfRA2gdaop2n7foaYx0dG3.1
Meeting-ID: 611 3110 2993
Kenncode: 901152
 

No registration required.