Hi, friends and colleagues!
This semester (Spring 2020) I am organizing a rather informal virtual symposium on “Neurodivergent Writing, Neurodivergent Literacies.” This virtual symposium will be organized as a fulfillment of a course project in my seminar on literacies taught by Dr. Charlotte Hogg at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.
“Neurodivergent Writing, Neurodivergent Literacies” will be a half-day virtual symposium that will be facilitated using the following platforms:
1) Twitter: we’ll be using the hashtags #AntiAbleistComposition and #NDLiteracies to facilitate a more open, public-facing conversation about writing, literacy, and neurodivergence. This method will offer us a more continuous form of communicating.
2) Pre-recorded videos: Participants will have the option of pre-recording videos and submitting them to antiableistcomposition@gmail.com to be posted on the Anti-Ableist Composition website at http://www.antiableistcomposition.com. This will be a more asynchronous method.
Who?
This virtual symposium will foreground neurodivergent writers and literacy workers, which means all neurodivergent people. As Elaine Richardson and Carmen Kynard have often reminded us, literacy is a doing; literacy is something we do. For the purposes of this virtual symposium, “neurodivergence” is a generative referent that includes both self-diagnosed and “officially” diagnosed neurodivergent people: ADHD, Autism, OCD, PTSD, ADD, OCPD, anxiety disorders, chronic depression, bipolar disorder, and all neurodivergent modes of inhabiting what is otherwise a neurotypical world.
Co-organizers*
- Adam Hubrig
- Cody Jackson
- John Smilges
*If you are interested in helping with the logistics and organization of the virtual symposium (blog posts, audio/video submissions, etc.) feel free to state that in the form below as well.
When?
The date and time will depend primarily on what you, and all other participants and attendees, note as your availability in the form below. A time and date for the Twitter chat will be posted two (2) weeks beforehand. The deadline for submitting videos or audio recordings or short essays will be decided after your information is gathered. However, the deadline will at least be by April 1, 2020, for the purposes of my (Cody’s) seminar project.
Where?
On Twitter via the #AntiAbleistComposition and #NDLiteracies hashtags.
On http://www.AntiAbleistComposition.com.
What?
Participants can contribute to the virtual symposium in the following ways, but feel free to suggest other forms of participation in the fields below:
1) a live Twitter chat at the hashtags includes above
2) a pre-recorded video or audio file that will be uploaded to http://www.antiableistcomposition.com.
3) a short (250-500) word reflection blog post to be shared on http://www.antiableistcomposition.com.
Topics for participants to engage may include the following but may also expand beyond these:
• Since neurodivergence affects our lives every second of every day, how do we engage writing processes?
• How do we participate in writing projects that are collaborative? What are the best ways to promote collaboration with neurodivergent writers?
• What disability/neurodiversity activism work are you currently involved with in your communities?
• How can we reimagine the university/higher education to be more accessible for neurodivergent students (undergraduate and graduate)?
• How can we reimagine the university/higher education to be more accessible for neurodivergent faculty, staff, and instructors?
• How should race inform conversations on neurodivergence, mental disability, and literacy?
• How do deadlines and time constraints impact our writing processes? How do we “manage” our time in oftentimes very restrictive work/school environments?
• Can we describe our writing spaces? Where do we usually write? What spaces allow us to write more fully and embodied? How does space impact our writing practices?
• How do our sensory impressions impact our writing practices and literacy practices?
If you have any questions about this virtual symposium or comments regarding participation, feel free to contact me (Cody Jackson) at cody.jackson@tcu.edu or antiableistcomposition@gmail.com.
Anti-Ableist Composition 