Neurodiversity and the University

Thursday 9th December 2021 | 18:00-19:30 | Online (zoom)

Lizzie Huxley Jones, Nick Walker and KR Moorhead

Moderated by Hanna Randall

Researchers and writers/editors discuss the current climate in academia and publishing in regards to neurodiversity, neurodivergent and neuroqueer voices. How can English and creative writing departments at Universities better accommodate neurodivergent lecturers? And how can teachers of creative writing better accommodate neurodivergent students? What does the future look like for neurodivergent/neuroqueer writers and how might we shape the publishing industry to get our voices heard?

Lizzie Huxley Jones is is an autistic author and editor based in London. They are the editor of Stim, an anthology of autistic authors and artists, which was published by Unbound in April 2020 to coincide with World Autism Awareness Week. They are also the author of the children’s biography Sir David Attenborough: A Life Story (2020) and a contributor to the anthology Allies: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, And Trying Again (2021). They are an editor at independent micropublisher '3 of Cups Press', and also advise writers as a freelance sensitivity reader and editorial consultant. In their past career lives, they have been a research diver, a children’s bookseller and digital communications specialist.

Nick Walker is a queer, transgender, flamingly autistic writer and educator known for her foundational work on the neurodiversity paradigm and Neuroqueer Theory, and her contributions to the emergent genre of neuroqueer speculative fiction. She is co-creator of the urban fantasy webcomic Weird Luck, and author of various short speculative fiction stories and the essay collection Neuroqueer Heresies (2021). As Managing Editor of the worker-owned indie publishing house Autonomous Press, she has co-edited and contributed to multiple volumes of the annual Spoon Knife neuroqueer lit anthology. She is also senior aikido instructor at the Aiki Arts Center in Berkeley, California, and a professor of psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies.

KR Moorhead is a Lecturer in Creative Writing on the undergraduate English Literature and Creative Writing degree programme at UEA. They originally came to UEA as a study abroad student from Temple University in Philadelphia, where they earned their BA in English in 2005. They went on to complete an MA in Prose Fiction at UEA in 2007 before publishing their first novel, The First Law of Motion in the US with St Martin's Press in 2009. K also holds a PG Certificate in Higher Education Practice, is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and is currently studying for a second MA in Education Practice and Research in UEA's school of Education. They are interested in teaching Creative Writing to students for whom English is not their first language, as well as looking at Creative Writing through the lens of Intersectional Feminism.

Hanna Randall is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Sussex on the Creative and Critical Writing programme. Her research centres around developing a neuroqueer psychogeography, neuroqueer experience in urban space and the significance of word-image relationships for neuroqueer writers. She holds an MA in Japanese Studies from SOAS, a PGdip in Theatre Costume and has worked as a theatrical costumer maker for many years. She is represented by Elise Dillsworth Agency.

Series Overview

Creative writers teach in schools, universities and the community, on retreats, in theatres and in workshops. Teaching is often a key part of a writer’s career, and there are rich possibilities creative arts education across a huge range of contexts. But how do you teach creative writing? Can you? How can the field be made more accessible?This series offers anyone considering teaching creative writing as part of their career development the opportunity to look in detail at the theory and practice of creative writing pedagogy in a variety of institutional and community settings.

Following on from last year, the series will address the historical principles and contemporary critiques of creative writing pedagogy, and how these are responding to wider institutional and societal developments. It will consider in detail the theory and practice of employing these pedagogical skills both within and outside higher education. Attendees will be invited to reflect on future possibilities and challenges for the development of creative writing teaching, enabling a deeper awareness and knowledge of creative writing as a subject of study, a future career, and a creative practice.

Students are not expected to attend all the sessions, but the series has been designed to allow for an arc of learning from theoretical principles to practical engagement.

The sessions will take place online via Zoom, once a month for the 2021/22 academic year.