The fourth episode of the neurodissent podcast is now available! In it, we talk about the Christian mystic Margery Kempe. Kempe lived in England from about 1373 AD to 1438 AD. She did something few medieval women did: she wrote a book about herself, with the help of a scribe. In her book, Kempe describes […]
The neurodissent podcast‘s third episode (season 1) is now online! In this episode, we talk about the theologian St. Jerome, who lived in the Roman empire from around 340 – 420 AD. Jerome’s writings were influential during his time, and have remained so for over 1600 years. Among the many things he wrote was the […]
The neurodissent podcast‘s second episode (season 1) is now online! In this episode, we explore healing stories about Jesus Christ told in the Gospel of Mark. In Mark, we find stories of Jesus Christ exorcising demons. Using modern medical or psychiatric knowledge, listeners may recognize these afflictions as diagnoses like epilepsy and posttraumatic stress disorder. […]
Together with my partner in life and thought, Molly Friesenborg, I’ve launched the neurodissent podcast. Both of us are neurodivergent, and, in the podcast, we will look for new (to us) ways to think about and discuss mental health. We will start our search in the distant past. Our first season will focus on the […]
Missy Cooper (Sheldon Cooper’s twin sister): I’ve lived my whole life dealing with the fact that my twin brother is, as Mom puts it, one of God’s special little people. Sheldon Cooper: I always thought I was more like a cuckoo bird. You know, a superior creature whose egg is placed in the nest of […]
Content warning – This piece describes the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. —-//—- George Floyd was a Black man murdered by a white police officer. The officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes while Floyd struggled and called for relief and mercy. A teenager named Darnella Frazier recorded the event, and […]
The first session of the neurodissent theory circle will end in June 2022. During our first session, I posed the question “Who are WE to theorize neurodivergence and the neuronormative world?” to a group of 25 neurodivergent scholars. We read texts that affirmed the value of and need for our neurodivergent perspectives. They also challenged […]
“Are you disabled?” my therapist asked me, during one of our sessions several months ago. Her question came in response to something I said that, in hindsight, sure sounded like I thought I was disabled. The question made me immediately uncomfortable, and I backed away from the label “disabled”, saying something like, “I wouldn’t go […]
Content warning: In this essay, I discuss transphobia and ableism. I also write about a serious car accident I was involved in. —//— “There’s been a great pressure to affirm these children as trans… without appropriate exploration,” said David Bell, a psychiatrist from the United Kingdom, in an April 2022 appearance on the BBC. He […]
I am excited to announce a new project: neurodissent, an online community of neurodivergent scholars theorizing against neuronormativity. I invite neurodivergent scholars to join the new neurodissent theory circle. I use the phrase “theory circle” as a nod to the work of critical education scholar Paulo Freire, who used “cultural circles” as a form of […]