Hi everyone! I’m Linda (she/they) and I’ll be talking over the @PhD_Balance IG tomorrow!
I’ve been part of the PhD Balance social media team for the past 2 ish months and have been loving it! But during my Instagram takeover tomorrow and Grad Chat on Saturday, I am going to be talking about disabilities and neurodiversity in STEM.
I am from the countryside in Ireland, but I have been living in the capital city, Dublin for the past 5 years. I have a BSc. in Food Science from University College Dublin. Currently, I am a Teagasc Walsh Scholar completing a Research MSc. in Food Science with University College Cork and Teagasc (Irish Research Authority for Food and Agriculture).
I have dyslexia, ADHD and I have autistic-like traits/sensory processing issues (currently under re-review). I also have struggled with anxiety, depression, and disordered eating for most of my life. I didn’t really start to get diagnosed with anything until I was in the mid to late teen and it has been a struggle, to say the least. But for me getting diagnosed or even having my suspicions validated has been a great source of comfort for me and has allowed me to be much kinder to myself.
During my takeover tomorrow, I’ll be talking about my experience of being disabled in grad school, especially about supports or lack thereof, ableism in academia and trying to be an advocate for a group that everyone likes to pretend doesn’t exist…
Don’t forget to check out the live grad chat, where I’ll be discussing even more on Saturday!
Grad Chat will be live-streamed on Youtube Saturday at 3 pm EDT/12 pm PST/8 pm BST!
You can also now listen to all our Grad Chat episodes as a podcast, which is hosted on Anchor FM and available on all major streaming services!