Hello! Im at #AECongress25 - do come say hi if you see me. I also have a talk this afternoon about the double empathy problem in care and support services!

Does neurotype affect social connection? Our new @PLOSONE paper finds autistic people report lower rapport in conversations, but it's not that simple. We found that awareness of who you're talking to is key! Paper link (OA): doi.org/10.1371/jour...

I'm going to be speaking at this, as part of the "Human-AI teaming: Whose voices are missing?" session - talking about how neurodivergent voices and minds need to be included when designing AI to work collaboratively with humans.

Belated because I've been super busy, but I graduated a few weeks ago! I'm *officially* Dr. Sutherland now. Not sure I can really explain what that means to me - I've wanted a doctorate for as long as I can remember. Huge thanks to the wonderful supervisors who helped get me there. 💜

Would really love it if I could verbally reason with R Studio, actually. (Brought to you by: an error message telling me I can only use Function A with Function B, which is... the exact function I'm using it with... via identical syntax to that in the documentation...)

Hello! I do cognitive science-ish things, neurodiversity (mostly autism), mixed methods research, and sometimes weird interdisciplinary stuff. I love giving talks. Currently doing a postdoc at @ Cambridge. You can find my papers, datasets, talks archive etc. on my website: www.heasutherland.com

In honour of the fact I have hair now: new profile photo! This way I will hopefully stop alarming people by being unexpectedly not-bald when I see them at conferences.

Very excited to be attending the Critical Neurodiversity Studies conference today, from the @ndhumanities.bsky.social network. Sad I can't be there in person, but their online provision is wonderful, and lots of very cool speakers in the lineup...

If you're interested in autism, religious experience, and people who are minimally-speaking / have higher support needs, do check out this job at U of Aberdeen: www.abdnjobs.co.uk/vacancy/rese... You'd get to work on a very interesting project with a really great team.

This is now published in the Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research! ▶️ sjdr.se/articles/10....

Just got an invite to review a paper, from a journal which I had, no more than *two hours before*, submitted a paper review to. Please... a week between reviews, I beg... one week is all I ask for...

I’m so excited to share that our call for papers for a special issue of ‘ #Neurodiversity’ is now live! We’re looking for papers, podcasts, videos (and more) that align with the critical turn in #ND studies! 🤩 @ainokash.bsky.social @louisecreechan.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cm...

UK Channel 5 show Are You Autistic? channel5.com/show/are-you... through interviews w/ autistic people & autism researchers a GP shows sensory issues & camouflaging, hence females, are better recognized. Consistent w/ autism as innate, lifelong, sensory-based. 1/ www.frontiersin.org/journals/int...

New paper alert! Information transfer within and between autistic and non-autistic people is out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com nature.com/articles/s41... THREAD! 🧵⬇️

The podcast I did about my PhD research with the wonderful Middletown Autism Centre is now out: www.buzzsprout.com/1184276/epis... (+ Apple & Spotify ) It's a pretty casual chat, not a super technical academic thing - so if you're a carer, practitioner, etc. do give it a listen!

Thesis corrections were submitted Saturday! Three added sections on the ethics of and participation recruitment for my studies, and also a bit on my epistemology and how that interacted with my methods. It was hard work to write them, but I'm glad I did it - the thesis is better with them in.

Phone recharged! Time for the brilliant @heasutherland.com Communicatively Resourceful, Interpretatively Curious: (mis)Communications in Social Care Settings for Autistic People with High Support Needs. An ethnography 🤩 in interactional relationships.

Another excellent and very thorough live-skeet of our panel today, for those who couldn't be there in person!

Now hearing the fantastic @heasutherland.com present on her PhD research looking at communication in social care setting for autistic people with high support needs. Holly opens by highlighting that there is a gap of research in this area. #INSAR2025

Now attending the Neurodivergence-Affirming and Inclusive Research Practices for Autistic Peopke with High Support Needs panel discussion: @drstevenkapp.bsky.social, @dianatan.bsky.social, @heasutherland.com & Teresa Gironomo are live presenting, Aimee Grant & Jackie Ryan have recorded. #INSAR2025

So honoured our work on social motor synchrony and rapport received an INSAR award! While I regret not being there in person tomorrow, the brilliant @sarah-foster.bsky.social will be presenting. Please stop by Poster 442.292 in Hall 4A at 12:30 to chat with her! #INSAR2025

“Autistic people have been researched to death. We need to research autistic people back to life.” Grant Bruno. Fabulous.

@heasutherland.com is part of my invited panel (co-chaired by Diana Tan) on neurodivergence-affirming research for autistic people w/ high support needs Saturday 10:30-12:30 at #INSAR2025. Also presenting: Aimee Grant @proudmum95.bsky.social Teresa Girolamo. Discussants: Grant Blasko, Vikram Jaswal.

Nordahl: With proper support, there is no reason why autistic people with high support needs cannot participate in research. Not every attempt will be successful, but researchers should learn how to accommodate high-support autistic subjects so they can at least try to be included. #INSAR2025

If you’re at autism research conference #INSAR2025 in Seattle please look out for the following research in which I was privileged to be involved! By @heasutherland.com presenting on the relationships autistic people in social care services have with staff, autistic and non-autistic

Who on here is going to INSAR this week? #INSAR25 Drop a comment if you'd like to meet up (either before or during! I'm around from Tuesday onwards, minus a few prior commitments) - it'd be great to catch up with people, or to meet people I only know as profile pics on here :)

I'm always bewildered when people reply to my work, which often amounts to "we should try being nicer and more accomodating to autistic people", with "NO, autism is a DISABILITY". Like. That's a true but entirely unrelated point. Unless you're saying we should be mean to disabled people...?

This is now peer reviewed and out in Neurodiversity - my first published PhD output! 📰 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Reminder that I'm doing a talk tomorrow for the Middletown Centre on neuro-affirming support for autistic people with higher support needs. Aimed at carers, professionals, parents etc. - do come along! More info & ticket link: www.heasutherland.com/talk/neuro-a...

Reminding me that I really, *really* need to take "Empire of Normality" with me to read on my annual leave next week. (Fein, 2018; "Autism as a Mode of Engagement")

Thesis corrections continue; currently reading Elizabeth Fein's "Innocent Machines", which a) is excellent and I'm a little bit obsessed, but b) is going to necessitate a glass of wine to get through, I think.

We're now a month out from INSAR 2025. So it's a good time to mention that, on the Saturday, I'll be on a panel about the neurodiversity paradigm and how it applies to and benefits autistic people with higher support needs. See you there! www.heasutherland.com/talk/neurodi...

Belated, but really excited to announce I'll be speaking at Autism Europe #AEC2025 about my ethnographic work involving the neurodiversity paradigm and autistic people with higher support needs!

This morning, I had the pleasure of talking at @autisticsociety.bsky.social's conference about neuroaffirming practice. This afternoon, I was looking over my autism diagnosis report (from '08!), and saw this at the end of it. Got a lot of feelings about now being part of producing those resources...

There is still time to book for our one day conference on #Religion, #Disability and #Neurodivergence! The day is for anyone interested in the intersection of disability, neurodivergence and religion and is for academics, practitioners and people wanting to hear some really fab work! /1/

One of the things I'm doing at the moment is overhauling my workflow for writing, research, and organising. I thought I'd make a little thread with some helpful things I use. In no particular order, probably over the course of a few weeks, and with the caveat that my process isn't your process... 🧵

Updated my website with some talks I'm doing over the next few months - a lot of stuff aimed at professionals working with autistic people, including autistic people with higher support needs. More info & booking links at: heasutherland.com/event/

I'm excited to be one of the speakers at @autisticsociety.bsky.social's Annual Professionals’ Conference, live online on 13th March 2025. The conference's theme is exploring neuroaffirmative practice. I'll be talking about high support needs. Tickets and information: www.autism.org.uk/conference

Really happy to say that I passed my viva with minor corrections, and am now Dr. Sutherland :)

Re-reading through my thesis in advance of my viva (which is tomorrow?!) and, out of 112,000 words worth of sentences, I think these two might be my favourite:

Should probably get a new profile pic on the basis I haven't been bald for months now... I just keep putting off taking one. This one is my pic everywhere online, so I have to assume my hair at this point is a jumpscare when I zoom with people who've never met me before.

I've been bewildered by posts about academics finding ChatGPT useful for anything, because for my area (approx: autism, social psych, qualitative) it's been utterly useless every time I've tried it. Got it to check some formal logic I was putting together today, though, and *oh*. I get it now.

Bewildering that INSAR's 2025 sign-up for the autistic researchers networking session involves not one, but two apologies that it's "only" open to people who id as autistic. That would seem to be the point, no? They haven't apologised that the student networking lunch is only open to students...

Question for other ECR-ish people: how many peer reviews is "normal" / "reasonable" to accept per month? (Asking for me, who has done I think 6 peer review requests in the past two-ish months, which seems (to me) like A Lot.)

The video of last week's methods panel is up! Come check out Freddie Jones, Léon Van Ommen and I talked about using qualitative methods with nonspeaking people. Link to the full panel video (and to the slides for my section) available here: www.heasutherland.com/talk/ethnogr...

My thesis is out, people are reading it, and I didn't even know! If you're curious it is free here: eprints.soton.ac.uk/497372/ #phdlife #phdstudent #InclusiveResearch #belonging #PMLD #PIMD #profounddisability @cri-uos.bsky.social @scdtp.bsky.social @uoseducation.bsky.social

My intermittent reminder that I have a website - heasutherland.com - that I keep (mostly) up to date with what I've been doing. If you've missed a talk I've given recently, there are slides available with my speaker notes. There's also a list of upcoming talks/events!

Excited to report that I'm going to be on a plenary panel asking "What is neuroaffirming support?" at the National Autistic Society conference in March. I'll be talking specifically about high support needs contexts - because neuroaffirming support is for everyone. www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/a...

Deadline extended until end of February - looking for a fully funded PhD with a focus on aural diversity? Please apply! #joinus #fundedphd #acoustics #research #uniofsalford #salford #leverhulme