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About

Hi! I’m Gemma Williams. I’m an autistic early career researcher interested in communication, critical autism studies, loneliness, social policy and engaged research: among other things!

I completed my Linguistics PhD at the University of Brighton in 2021, where I used ‘relevance theory’ - a cognitive account of utterance interpretation - to reframe how we understand the breakdowns in mutual understanding that can often occur between autistic and non-autistic people as a two-way ‘double empathy problem’. I currently have a 15 month ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship in Social Policy based at the Centre of Resilience and Social Justice at the University of Brighton where I’m working co-productively to extend and creatively disseminate my research findings and to co-develop some recommendations for health and social care policy around cross-neurotype communication. Get in touch if you’d like to be involved / hear more... 

I’ve always loved languages and linguistics. Before my PhD, I taught English as a Foreign Language for eight years, both in ESOL classes for migrant workers, asylum-seekers and the settled community and to Business English learners. This led me to my Masters Degree (in English Language Teaching) at the University of Sussex where my dissertation research focused on teacher cognition, Intercultural Communicative Competence and English as a Lingua Franca.

As well as a linguist, I am also a musician…

Take a look at the tabs above where you will find my academic C.V, a repository of recorded presentation videos from various conferences and symposia, books I recommend if you’re interested in learning more about autism and an archive of my doctoral research blog... Thanks for visiting!

Linktree to recent papers 

Researchgate profile

ORCID iD

Twitter

Boing Boing profile

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Two recently published papers and a book chapter...

It feels like a life-time ago that I began my PhD, but the past three years also seem to have flown by.... As I’m approaching submitting my thesis and flapping over trying to getting my references in alphabetical order (who knew it would be so hard!), three elements from my thesis have recently been published (links below). I’m currently editing a paper reporting on the main linguistic findings about cross-dispositional communication and will be submitting that for peer review soon, so watch this space....

In Anthropology and Humanism Journal (OPEN ACCESS article):

‘We’re all Strangers Here’ - (Auto)ethnographic short creative non-fiction exploring the first day of the Talking Together project, where autistic and non-autsitic strangers came together to talk about loneliness

In Research For All (OPEN ACCESS article):

‘From anonymous subject to engaged stakeholder: Enriching participant experience in autistic-language-use research’ - Article reflecting on the benefits of engaged research methodologies in linguistic research.

In The Neurodiversity Reader (book chapter):

Perceptual deviants: understanding autistic subjectivities in a (not so) predictable world - Chapter introducing an embodied, enactive perspective on autistic experience compatible with predictive processing in accessible terms. 

(+ loads of brilliant other chapters and authors in this book)

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Challenging stereotypes: novel perspectives on autism - online symposium

It’s not too late to join our online symposium: we’re taking questions until the end of August that will be combined and answered in a factsheet that we’ll share on the main page. 

There are some excellent talks and digital resources here, exploring themes such as masking, monotropism, the double empathy problem, anxiety in autism, the link between hypermobilty and neurodiversity and many more.... 

It’s free and you can access the material at your own pace. Sign up here! Instructions below if required. 

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All the talks from Autistica’s recent Research Festival are now available on Youtube. My talk, “I came here to learn about autistic communication, what I got what a lesson in loneliness (and how that might be overcome)”, is from about 28 minutess in and you can find the full playlist of festival videos here. 

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Early view, open access new paper

My piece of (auto-)ethnographic creative non-fiction ‘We’re All Strangers Here’ is now available, open access, as an early view, HERE!

From the paper summary:

This piece forms part of my linguistic ethnographic doctoral thesis, investigating the ways in which mutual understanding does and does not break down between autistic and non-autistic people. As an autistic researcher researching autistic language use, it became increasingly apparent throughout my research that I could not separate myself and my ”insider perspective” from my work. Autoethnographic creative writing offers a way to reflect on my inter-relation with the subject matter as well as ”giving voice” to those [autistic people more generally] who are often overlooked. Autism is heterogeneous in its nature and autistic people are diverse in ways that popular conventions and stereotypes don’t often afford. In this piece I represent three very different characters—each autistic—to give some insight into the breadth of what ”autisticness” can be. The first character is based on myself, exploring the tensions found in being an autist within the academy. The two fictionalized characters are composites of my research participants, based on my ethnographic observations. [autism, autoethnography, ethnographic fiction, empirical pragmatics, loneliness]

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Stim: An Autistic Anthology

Amid the chaos that has been the past three months, I entirely forgot to share that I’ve had a piece of short fiction included in this anthology. 

It’s fantastic collection of really diverse autistic voices including fiction, essays, memoir and even some illustrative artwork. You can buy it here or all the usual places... 

I’ve also included this on a new page I’ve just added to this blog featuring book recommendations that might be useful for people learning about autism... Have a look at the tab at the top...

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Pre-print online of new accepted article

My first DOI, oh my!

I’m very very happy to be able to share a pre-print of the first article from my PhD to be accepted for publication. 

“From anonymous subject to engaged stakeholder: Enriching participant experience in autistic-language-use research” explores the the benefits and challenges of taking an engaged approach to autism research, reflects on being an autistic autism researcher, and discusses the how the concept of ‘ethical loneliness’ (Stauffer, 2015) may relate to loneliness in autism.

It’s due for publication in the open access journal Research for All in September this year, but you can read the pre-print here.  

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Well, Vancouver was a dream. The AAA/CASCA conference was eye-opening. What a trip.

Here with Julia Offen of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology receiving my certificate.

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SHA Ethnographic Fiction & Creative Nonfiction Prize 2019

I was BEYOND excited last week to be informed that a piece of writing I’d entered to the Society for Humanistic Anthropology’s 2019 Ethnographic Fiction & Creative Nonfiction Prize has been awarded an Honorable Mention. 

The text, ‘We’re All Strangers Here,’ is a piece of (auto)ethnographic short fiction exploring my experience as an autistic researcher and what that means within research into autistic language use, the Talking Together (about loneliness) project, and the nuance of autistic difference. We’re All Strangers Here will form part of my PhD thesis and should also be published (and available to read) next year in the Anthropology and Humanism journal.

All being well I should be heading out to Vancouver (!!) in late November to attend the awards ceremony and the American Anthropological Association ‘s annual conference. 

It’s taken me a week to stop dancing. 

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‘Talking Together’ research poster submitted to the University of Brighton Postgraduate Festival of Research 2019. References and further information below:

 References

BBC Radio 4 (2018) The Anatomy of Loneliness (first broadcast 2 October 2018, 21:30). Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2yzhfv4DvqVp5nZyxBD8G23/who-feels-lonely-the-results-of-the-world-s-largest-loneliness-study (Accessed: 25 March 2019)

Milton, D. (2012b) On the ontological status of autism: the double empathy problem. Disability and Society. 27 (6): 883- 887

National Autistic Society (2018) Hidden crisis: Autistic people four times more likely to be lonely than general public Available at: https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/media-centre/news/2018-04-25-hidden-crisis-autism-and-loneliness.aspx (Accessed 26 September 2018)

Sperber, D., Wilson, D. (1986) Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers

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For further information and discussion of the primary linguistic aims of the thesis, the double empathy problem and relevance theory in relation to autistic language use, see:

 Conversing at the edge of meaning (video of presentation given at VIII INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON INTERCULTURAL, COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL PRAGMATICS, Seville, 2nd May 2018)

And

Theory of autistic mind (video of presentation given at 8th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics & Communication, Cyprus, 9th June 2018) 

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Talking Together project

This morning I received the first transcript back from a series of recorded conversations that took place over several days, a couple of weeks ago. It’s delightful. 

The Talking Together project began as a means of collecting naturalistic conversation data for my PhD research into autistic communication. I invited adult autistic residents of Brighton and Hove to come and have three conversations, of about 10 minutes each, about their experiences of loneliness both personally, and in the city. 

For the first conversation they spoke with someone they knew well that they’d brought along with them, for the second I paired them up with another autistic participant they didn’t know, and for the third conversation they were paired with a non-autistic person from the University of Brighton (mostly students). 

Loneliness is huge problem in our society. Autistic people are especially vulnerable to experiencing loneliness and the recent BBC Loneliness Experiment found that young people (aged 18-24) are increasingly feeling lonely. It seemed ideal to bring these two groups together- people who might not ordinarily cross paths- to see what could happen.

I’d wanted to make sure that my ‘data collection’ phase was meaningful in itself. As well as getting hold of material that I hope will prove really useful in my investigation into where and why (mis)-understanding happens in autistic communication (particularly between autistic and non-autistic people), I wanted anyone taking part to also feel like they had an opportunity to have their voices heard on an important issue, and to have the chance to connect with new people.

I had high hopes for the project but even I had not anticipated the amount of warmth, bonhomie, openness and genuine connection that seemed to develop during the conversations. Nor the sheer number of biscuits consumed (mostly by my ~un-named~ supervisor). We had hugs, tears, laughter. At a time when the country is cut so many ways, and so deeply, by divisions that seem insurmountable, it was a humbling and beautiful experience to see people meet and talk kindly. 

I’ll be writing up a report on what came out of the conversations on loneliness and loneliness in Brighton and Hove, as well Talking Together as a participatory engagement activity- keep your eyes peeled.

I’d love to see it expanded into a larger project, too. Let’s see.

Meanwhile, keep talking...

(Badges kindly made by Sootmegs for the project)

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This presentation was given at 8th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics & Communication, Cyprus, 9th June 2018. This home-recording was made after-the-fact in order to share what was presented.

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My blog piece for the Brighton Doctoral College on delivering my first international conference presentation.

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Home-recording of the recent presentation given at VIII INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON INTERCULTURAL, COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL PRAGMATICS, Seville.

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My research

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impaired communication and social interaction, with pragmatic ‘deficits’ in autistic language use commonly attributed to an impaired theory of mind, or ‘mindblindness’- the inability to detect or make sense of the states of others. From this perspective the onus of failures in mutual understanding is placed within the brains/minds of the autistic individuals involved. However, recent research in the social sciences and critical autism studies is beginning to provide evidence of the difficulties that non-autistic people have understanding autistic people too, and to reframe the communicative difficulties as a two-way, ‘double empathy problem’. The aim of this thesis is to apply this difference-not-deficit perspective to an investigation of adult autistic language use. Can Relevance Theory, a cognitive account of utterance interpretation, make sense of what is happening pragmatically? Is a radical reframing of the difficulties observed in autistic-neurotypical communication as essentially an intercultural problem, valuable? Can English as a Lingua Franca and its associated accommodative efforts offer any insights?  This thesis will draw on Sociology, Anthropology, Philosophy of Mind and Critical Autism studies to augment its core Pragmatics tools in attempting to answer these questions.