ENGL45930: Neurodiversity and the Humanities

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• To introduce students to the emergent field of Neurodiversity Studies and to provide advanced training within this exciting and enabling field of academic enquiry.
• To develop in students a strong understanding of how an appreciation of neurological variation can enable us to discover new and previously overlooked perspectives in relation to a variety of texts and mixed-media sources.
• To interrogate the neurotypical biases within standard models of literary and cultural criticism and wider medical humanities scholarship.
• To equip students with the tools to devise and deliver their own mode of assessment in their preferred format.

• In this module, students will engage with a diverse range of literary, historical, and cultural texts that decentre the neurotypical experience in favour of an alternative that diverges from the norm within a given socio-political context.
• The module starts by interrogating the diagnostic basis of several conditions labelled as neurodivergent, bringing cognitive and developmental psychology into conversation with writings from neurodivergent advocates and activists. Key tenets of the Neurodiversity movement will be introduced, acknowledging that it brings together a variety of perspectives and practices united in their challenge to mainstream biomedical models of neurological divergence and disability.
• The module then moves on a weekly basis through various critical reconfigurations of neurodivergence and engagements with different media. These include: neurodivergent literary theory and approaches to textual analysis, historical case studies, neurodiversity and the literary canon, creative practice, life-writing and self-advocacy, YA and writing for representation, and contemporary poetics. The module makes use of a variety of media including zines, comics, dance, theatre, stand-up comedy, and literary texts to interrogate the accessibility of differing forms of presentation.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• On completion of this module, students will be able to:
• Understand the complexities of the neurodiversity movement and use these to rethink conceptual frameworks and approaches to cultural criticism.
• Recognise and analyse the areas of tension and the intersection between Neurodiversity Studies and the associated disciplines of Disability Studies, Mad Studies, and the wider Medical and Health Humanities.
• Situate debates about neurodiversity and access within broader social, political, economic, and ideological contexts.
• Articulate the advantages and limitations of particular modes of scholarship with respect to diverse learning needs

Subject-specific Skills:

• Articulate an advanced knowledge and understanding of a range of conceptual and scholarly approaches to neurodiversity across a variety of media.
• Interrogate and challenge the centrality of the neurotypical both in cultural products and in scholarship.
• Analyse a diverse range of media to form a nuanced and informed reading of specific texts covered in depth on the module
• Devise an appropriate approach to explore an aspect of neurodiversity in culture and demonstrate learning
• Apply reflective and self-evaluative practices to critique their own approaches to the core concepts of the module.

Key Skills:

• An advanced ability to engage with cutting-edge research and to evaluate current ideas critically and with sensitivity and nuance.
• An advanced ability to select and synthesise complex material in different media and from a wide range of sources in order to produce effective scholarly responses to key questions
• Sophisticated skills in critical reasoning with an advanced ability to handle information and argue critically and creatively.
• Extended skills in the interpretation of information through close reading and research.
• The capacity to consider accessibility at the forefront of academic endeavour.
• The ability to engage in disciplined reflection upon their own processes through independent learning and feedback.
• The ability to plan work effectively with appropriate time-management skills.

• This module will be delivered primarily by the Department of English Studies, but it will draw upon the interdisciplinary expertise of affiliates of the Institute for Medical Humanities and additional external collaborators with specific insights, including from their lived experience.
• As the module is focused on neurodiversity, the mediums of assessment can be adapted to enable neurodiverse students to flourish according to their own strengths. In practice, this means that written assessments may be exchanged for transcriptions of oral recordings (or similar) to meet access requirements.
• The content of the module will be delivered online through asynchronous methods, such as pre-recorded lectures, discussion forums, and short written (or recorded) tasks. There will be two 30-minute synchronous supervisions over the module with the course convener to discuss assessment plans and guidance on course content and further reading. This is to give the participants 1:1 contact time with a tutor to support them through the online delivery.
• There are three summative assessments: a combined plan for the student-devised assessment (SDA) and annotated bibliography (30%), a student-devised assessment in a format of the students choosing, to include a bibliography and critical commentary (50%); submission of weekly learning logs, of which 3 will be formally assessed (20%).
• Students will submit a 500-750 word plan and annotated bibliography of 5-7 texts as preparation for their SDA. These will describe: their research idea, the central issues that they will engage with, their planned method of delivery, and relevant scholarship. The Student Devised Assessment presents an opportunity for students to draw on their various strengths, backgrounds, and interests, to produce a piece of work that engages with an aspect of neurodiversity and its intersections with the humanities. Guidance will be given throughout the term (in supervisions and over discussion forums) as to what formats might be suitable and appropriate in terms of scale/time investment/academic rigour. Examples might be: a podcast, a video series, a short film, a zine, a portfolio of art or creative writing. Along with their final SDA project piece, students will submit a bibliography and a 1000-1500 word critical commentary on their work.
• Personal learning logs of 300 words completed weekly will give a sense of structure to remote learning and will help students to synthesise and reflect upon the weeks materials. Three of these will formally assessed.

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