GEE SEMINAR SERIES-SPECIAL EVENT

Dear All

The GEE EDI committee has organised a one-off special event with guest speaker Dr Brian Irvine, UCL Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), IoE.

This seminar is open to all regardless of career stage. Please share details with colleagues, wider networks and those who may be interested.

Host: Elvira Mambetisaeva

Title: The Neurocomfortable Academy

Abstract: What might an academy built for comfort, curiosity, and connection look like—for all minds, and especially for neurodivergent ones? This seminar introduces the idea of a “Neurocomfortable Academy”: a space where neurodiversity is not simply accommodated but celebrated as essential to belonging to a learning community.  How might we go about making learning itself a comfortable endeavour so we can deal with uncomfortable ideas?

Using  Newman's “beau ideal”— a classical view of university education— Brian will suggest ways of thinking about learning as a teacher, coach and mentor. The wisdom of mentoring might be a way of equipping our autistic and ADHD students to become changemakers in their academy. It is just one way in which we might see what the presence of neurodivergent students could be telling us about how higher education could be different.

Drawing on ideas of neuro-cosmopolitanism, Brian will be asking you about universal design and participatory approaches to share how we can reconfigure normative academic spaces. This is not about inclusion into existing structures—but how we might all transform the academy itself.

Thank you