Professional Year in Review Check-in

It’s easy to write a professional year-in-review as a disabled academic who’s had the most life-threateningly difficult year of their life, medically speaking, because this could be a bit brief.

If you know me then you know that I’m not known for brevity, so I’m going to spell this out. Why? Partly because I’m still here, and feeling a bit celebratory. Also, because the few things I have on this list are also kinda cool. So.

Readers may also be interested in my 2024 medical year-in-review.

In Brief (1 min read)

I got to share some of my research at Population Association of America 2023 (PAA 2023) in New Orleans, back in April 2023. I will be able to share more of my research at PAA 2024 this coming April 2024 in Columbus, OH. This is pretty cool. Both studies use IPUMS-MICS data, disaggregated, and investigate disability, well-being (life satisfaction), and inequality in Latin American subnational regions. I’m psyched about heading back to PAA.

Another cool thing for 2023-2024 is that I was invited by the American Psychological Association (APA) to help create a new national curriculum project for disability and neurodiversity. Also, this is my 20th year as a Senior Adjunct Psychology Professor (literally the worst title ever, I know), and I mostly love it. Mostly. And yes I still do other work that I’m not including here in order to keep focused, but I’ve had to refer out most clients this year due to my health.

In More Words (8 min read)

PAA 2023

I got to present some of my research at Population Association of America 2023 (PAA 2023) in New Orleans, LA, US. For those interested in my PAA 2023 research, you can check out my PAA 2023 poster details online.

I had more fun at PAA 2023 than I was expecting to as a weird, disabled, autistic person who mostly didn’t know anybody there and had no plans with anybody I do know, because I’m not that kind of cool kid. But I made a few new friends and professional connections, and I had a ton of neat conversations.

 

 

I had one memorable chat with someone about a million steps above my paygrade. I’m omitting details for their privacy but that was cool… overall, it was quite a trip. I’m glad to be heading back to present more of my research at #PAA2024!

As for the trip down there, because of Rachael’s health conditions, we cannot risk COVID in our house. So we travel in our DIY accessible shuttlebus conversion. And we made the trip to New Orleans into a bit of a family vacation. I attended PAA while Rachael and Morgan the Dog walked around. One day, I worked at the campground and stayed back with Morgan the Dog while Rachael went around the city and did tours and checked things out on her own.

 

We were both very lucky that Renee, a former Research-Statistics student of mine from around 15 years ago now lives in New Orleans. And since I offer to stay in touch with former students they sometimes take me up on it, which I always enjoy. I share all of this with Renee’s express permission, of course.

Renee had us park in the perfect spot! It was right across the street from the conference. This allowed Rachael and I to both have a “home base” outside the conference. For her, she could walk around and then come back to the bus. For me, I’d go into the conference and then out to rest and meet up with the fam.

Renee also helped Rachael find allergen-friendly good local foods, and took us through City Park, which was a lot of fun and had lots of benches and rest places. I never, ever think of keeping in touch with former students so that, I don’t know, they’ll be my tour guide when I visit their future city someday. And yet, I’ve received such hospitality more than once to date. I’m very grateful.

 

Psychology: 20 years

Is 20 years of faithful service the year they give me the gold watch, or is that at 25 years? I’ll be sure to stick around if that’s down the pipeline. This is my twentieth year as a senior adjunct professor in the psychology department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. I taught a 4-4 courseload for years when I lived in the area. To date I’ve taught more than 100 undergraduate courses.

Don’t ask me why I stay on this long as a member of the exploited labor force. I’ll tell you it’s because I love teaching, which is the short answer. The longer answer isn’t interesting anyway. Since relocating to Minnesota to follow my wife’s work nine years ago, I only teach online. This is good, since the university is about 1400 mi (2250 km) from home, which would make for a tricky commute.

I teach Community Psychology, and some course information is on the course page, for those curious about my syllabus or other things like that.

I do very much enjoy teaching. The past few years have brought with them some trends that I’d prefer to see fizzle out. A few of these recent trends take the form of students getting Big Mad when they don’t get an A. If these trends grow, I won’t be here for the gold watch. Otherwise, I might be.

Either way, I’m here for now, teaching every spring, summer, and fall semester. Readers might be interested in Dear Students, Grades are points on a rubric, nothing more for context and some grading philosophy with an emphasis on capacity, accessibility, and the game of it all.

Research Assistant

While the finalization on the grant funding for my research assistant work was delayed and stressed everybody out over summer 2023, it eventually came through and I’m returning to work for IPUMS PMA as I have for the past few years. I will readily admit that what I like most about this work is that it is accessible: 

I work 20 hours/week, fully remote, from the relative comfort of my accesible home workstation, and working those hours whenever I am able to work them within the week.

What I like the second-best about it is that it comes with the most accommodating (disability-wise) supervisor, Devon. She’s truly the best. On the forthcoming blog post list is a short series of how-to blog posts, about how to be a neurodivergent-friendly supervisor, and how to be a neurodivergent-friendly company.

Devon will be featured in that first one. I won’t detail here but she does it right. This photo is Devon and me, coincidentally at the IPUMS booth at PAA 2023 at the same time.

 

APA National Psych Project

This fall, I was contacted by the American Psychological Association (APA) and told that some folks had nominated me to be a part of developing a national high school psychology curriculum project. Specifically, I was nominated as a subject matter expert on disability and neurodiversity, and they asked whether I would be interested in proceeding and being considered.

I said sure and then checked it out. As previously mentioned, I do love teaching and I enjoy developing content. So, I’m doing this. It’s interesting to think through. It comes with way more rules than I usually work with when I’m doing curriculum design, but I’m still doing it. After all, APA called me a subject matter expert. Flattery will get you somewhere, sometimes.

 

PhD Prospectus

And the only reason I’m a research assistant is that I got the bright idea to go back to school five years ago. I’m in my fifth year of the program and I’m a PhD Candidate in Sociology at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. I passed what are called preliminary exams a relatively long time ago. In the space between preliminary exams and final exams comes a department-level requirement known as the prospectus.

I’ve been delayed not in doing my research so much, as evidenced by the PAA presentations of my research, but in completing this one specific thing: the prospectus, and the subsequent conversations with my committee which I look forward to having but can’t, not until I get this prospectus sorted.

I’ve written about this elsewhere, in What is bottom-up thinking in autism? It’s one of the most popular articles on this website, and I hear from autistics often that it’s very relatable. In that essay, I use the PhD Prospectus as an example of the kind of thing that allistic (not-autistic) thinkers would tend to find helpful and that autistic thinkers would tend to find unhelpful (at best).

I can normally negotiate the neurotypical expectations of academia reasonably well. My problem right now is that I’m dealing with moderate malnutrition, a 2-year long status migraine that is literally trying to end my life, and substantial medication side effects. Therefore, at present, it’s just one too many hurdles for me to jump over them all. When it’s just the ableism, my autistic ass can handle it. But when I’m also starving to death and taking some hefty meds in the midst of a 2-year migraine? The ableism is a bit much.

But I will absolutely handle this prospectus. I mostly want to clarify that it’s an outline I’m hung up on, not the research nor the scientific rigor.

I’ve arranged for a smart person who gets me to be a sort of professional writing tutor, and to help me sort my thoughts into the mandatory prospectus outline. I will work this out and it will be done by my new deadline of May 31, 2024, assuming I’m still here.

Overall, In Closing

Being able to present my research at PAA two years in a row is truly an honor. From the website of the 2024 Annual Meeting, “The Population Association of America’s annual meeting is the premier conference of demographers and social and health scientists from the United States and abroad…” I enjoyed being a part of PAA 2023. Bobby was great and made sure my access needs were met: I had a stool at my poster on time, help hanging it, and a seat out back beforehand and after. This was such a nice change from the APC/ACPE 2022 conference I had presented at.

I’m looking forward to being back for PAA 2024. Also, because PAA 2024 is in Columbus, Ohio, this year’s accessible family road trip means that our DIY accessible shuttlebus will be taking Morgan the Dog, Rachael and me to be driveway camping with some good friends whom we haven’t seen in a couple years and who live four miles from the 2024 conference. Morgan is friends with their dogs, and Morgan has promised to not “hunt” the wildlife in their yard this time.

Onward…

Want to discuss this topic? There is a thread about it on the Autistic PhD FB page.