The Qualitative Open Mic

Qualitative researchers are increasingly turning to creative methods and methodologies to expand perspectives on health, healthcare, and divergent ways of being. In this episode Sohail speaks to Kai Syng Tan and Georgia Thom, both practising artists and researchers, about how neurodivergence and art work together to explore marginalised experiences of the world including trans life, neurodivergence, and their intersections, amid the resurgence of the far right.  

Autistic people have a whole constellation of communication needs and styles, but these are not always understood or accommodated by researchers. This month, Sohail interviews Alyssa Hillary Zisk about Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): what it is, the range of communication profiles it can help accommodate, and how qualitative inquiry into autistic experiences helped name these to increase understanding.

Neurodiversity and neurodivergence have been revolutionary ideas in autism research, and later in ADHD. But how do they apply to other diagnoses or experiences? This month Sohail speaks to Dr Daria Khanolainen, a dyslexia researcher in Finland, about qualitative dyslexia research, self-esteem, and pathologising reading difficulties.

We are re-publishing Bee Damara's interview with the Qualitative Open Mic, which had been temporarily removed from our archive and was part of the Anti-racist Qualitative Health Research series.

Bee speaks about critical race theory in modern slavery and human trafficking research, discussing her experiences working on the modern slavery outcome set project at KCL. She talks about the importance of grounding research in anti-racist theories, and how acknowledging historical and global inequalities can improve the quality and relevance of findings.

Parents get a lot of advice, and a lot of it is conflicting or inappropriate. Parenting research aims to be better than that – but is it, when neurodivergence is in the mix? This month Sohail speaks to Dr Victoria Castle about her participatory research using innovative qualitative methods to co-develop ways to measure parenting that work for neurodivergent parents and parents of neurodivergent children.

Autoethnographers use their personal experiences to explore wider issues, relationships, or situations. So what happens if you experience the world differently? Sohail speaks to Dr Elizabeth Hauke about autoethnography, inclusive education and assessment, and denormativising the university. 

Sohail interviews Dr Hannah Belcher, author of Taking off the Mask and lecturer in user-led research at King's. They cover some of the ethical complexities of the neurodiversity framework; how the specifically gendered nature of mainstream autism research has overlooked the experiences of women and non binary people; and how all this plays into issues around masking, social pressure, and mental health.

Has qualitative research been complacent about its ability to highlight marginalised perspectives? Sohail speaks to Dr Morénike Giwa Onaiwu about forthcoming anthology "Neurodiversity en Noir" and platforming Black neurodivergent voices. 

Why is the funding agenda for autism research so far from what the communities concerned want? There’s a long tradition of prioritising neurobiological and genetic work over qualitative, but how did it get this way? Sohail interviews Dr Monique Botha about citational justice, emotion in research, participatory research accessibility, and why letting community-led neurodivergence research out of its silo would benefit neurotypical and neurodivergent populations alike. 

Welcome to Series 7 of the Qualitative Open Mic! This series discusses the many ways neurodivergent perspectives can improve the quality, insights and impacts of qualitative health research, and what learnings this can provide for neurotypical and neurodivergent researchers alike. It showcases the critical role of researchers with ADHD, autism, dyspraxia and other neurodivergent experiences in shaping research and knowledge production. 

In this first episode we discuss how mainstream theories of autism have missed the mark by failing to qualitatively explore internal autistic worlds. Sohail speaks to legend among autistic autism researchers Dr Damian Milton about his formulation of this issue, the double empathy problem, and its broader implications for neurodivergent and neurotypical-led research in neurodiversity and beyond. Damian also discusses the importance of autistic-led spaces for surviving academia as an autistic academic, through the work of the Participatory Autism Research Collective.