Writing is how I relate to myself and to others. Writing has been a part of my life since at least the second grade when I started to make little books and write short stories. I tried to start a novel in the fifth grade, which I still dream of…
Tag: universities
I’ve blogged many, many times over the last decade about my employment situation. Most recently, I posted a podcast episode and transcript on the topic of unemployment addressing my low morale and general sense of failure. The problem is, I don’t know how much of a factor my autistic traits are…
Podcast 0009; Season 01, Episode 09; May 15, 2018 This week, I have struggled to get going on several projects. I am preparing for academic conferences knowing that these events will not advance my career. My goal was to secure a new professorship for 2018-19 and use these conference papers…
Many times since 2010 I have thought my quest for a professorship was over, only to find myself looking through job listing and hoping against hope for the elusive post. Hundreds of applications later, sometimes 70 or more in a year, the impossible quest needs to end. I finished the doctorate…
Family comes first for most of us, even when we make tough choices to follow or not follow career opportunities. Some friends have had to live apart from their partners, their spouses, and even children. They had bills to pay and felt obligated to choose career opportunities over remaining at…
Required college composition courses often serve a gatekeeping function, ensuring that only the right sort of students advance towards degrees. Though anecdotal, every campus course-related hearing I’ve been involved in as an expert on autism and neurodiversity was a writing course. These were not always first-year composition, but they were…
The situation, which represents at least three or four emails I receive per school year: A student requests exemptions from collaborative assignments and participation grades. The professor declines. Disability studies office asks me what the right solution is to this conflict. More often than I would like, this occurs in…
College and university disability offices often ask me to address the issue of assignment deadlines and test accommodations for autistic students and those with other “invisible” disabilities. Professors and instructors often decline to offer deadline extensions and test accommodations, arguing that such adjustments unfairly benefit students with special needs. If…
Academic departments in the humanities rarely understand the social impairments of autism. These departments are, by their nature, social places — quite unlike some departments in the STEM disciplines. I’ve blogged repeatedly that STEM fields tolerate introversion and even social awkwardness, but not the humanities. This claim is based not…
Some books and noted speakers make the case that academia is one of the better career paths for autistic adults capable of completing the required education. I’m unconvinced this is good advice for anyone, much less autistic individuals. Let me begin with the academic job market. Even within STEM fields,…