Interrupter Update Post!
News and new posting schedule
New posting schedule
Hello!
This week’s post is a little bit of housekeeping – and what feels the closest yet to a traditional newsletter…
I’ve been experimenting with Substack since the summer and overall I’m really enjoying the space. I’ve found some fantastic other writers and Substack spaces on here – see some in my ‘Recommended’ list. It’s been a useful prompt to take time for more creative or personal writing (for the monthly essays) and I’ve loved playing with different ways of making research findings accessible to a wider audience. As someone who’s taken the long-way-round to get into academia, that’s something I really believe is important. Research and science is for all of us.
That said, I’m not sure that weekly offerings are sustainable in the longer term, especially now that I’m finding myself getting busier with more (essentially unpaid) academic projects alongside my freelance work. Being autistic and living with chronic health issues means I have limited ‘spoons’ (energy levels) so I’m having a little rejig and reallocating my energies to where I think they can be most useful.
I’m thinking that as of next week I’ll drop down fortnightly posts, alternating between:
1. The longer-form, personal essays where I get to explore neurodiversity-related and adjacent ideas in a more creative way.
2. The Beyond The Abstract mini podcast series where I break down one academic paper per episode, thinking about its aims, methods and key findings.
I’d still like to share occasional Resource Roundtable posts, random news updates, in-conversations (and there’s a book review in the pipeline) – but these will become more ad-hoc. I’m thinking I’ll slot these in as and when, on the quiet Mondays and they might go out to paid subscribers in the first instance… we’ll see.
Thoughts are very much welcome – do let me know in the comments.
News and current projects
I love this time of year. For me it always feels like new beginnings (crisp leaves and shiny patent leather buckle shows, new notebooks, new stationery, new ideas).
Some of the lovely things that are currently occupying my time include:
I’ve very recently joined Brighton and Sussex Medical School as an Honorary Visiting Lecturer. I’ll be collaborating on the Time for Autism programme and the working group extending the initiative into the School of Education.
On Monday this week I went up to the Houses of Parliament with a lovely fellow BSMS colleague, Seb Shaw (who’s also an important part of Autistic Doctors International) for the re-launch of the Westminster Commission on Autism. We had a short hiatus as our hosting MP Barry Sheerman took retirement last - but with a new serving MP to host us we’re firing up again. (First step is to update the website - things should be improved soon!)
Outside the Houses of Parliament with Dr Seb Shaw, this week I’m currently tapping away furiously to get my second book written by the end of this year - with the plan for it to be published in Spring 2026. It’s bringing together expertise from my two different careers - one as an English language teacher and the other as a neurodiversity researcher - to explore neurodiversity in the language classroom. I’ve just finished up a chapter on Universal Design for Learning - which was a lot of fun to dig into .
Myself and some colleagues are currently wrapping up a grant application related to neurodivergence and clowning (and hoping to submit soon). I won’t say any more for now, but suffice to say it’s been very enjoyable to think about being silly again (clown school and a summer causing mischief in Étampes feels a long time ago now!).
Myself and some colleagues from the Heasman Flow Lab are also currently working on a book chapter for a collected edition, where we think about neurodivergent communicative difference in pragmatics (the social context of communication), prosody (the melody and rhythm of language), and gesture. All the good stuff that gets my brain whirring and crackling, essentially.
Thanks for reading this far and sticking with me!
Let me know, in the comments, any thoughts about the change of pace…
Warm wishes,
Gemma
I think your content is really valuable and writing to a schedule is over rated- I’d rather hear from someone because they are inspired to put something out, than something that’s been churned out because of a self imposed deadline. I think the writing is usually more alive that way. So I’d rather hear form you occasionally with your excellent posts, than you run out of spoons. Also I really love your snake dress 🐍 😊