Sarinah O’Donoghue

Sarinah co-founded the Neurodivergent Humanities Network in 2022 during the second year of her English Literature PhD at Aberdeen University. Her thesis focused on lived experiences of autism as presented through first-person narratives, and, recognising the power of collective storytelling in reclaiming a sense of identity and challenging pathological interpretations of neurodivergence, was keen to put these ideas into practice. The Neurodivergent Humanities Network provided an opportunity to collaborate with other neurodivergent scholars and community members to transform methods of teaching, creating, and learning, towards a more ethical form of scholarship that makes room for all kinds of difference. As well as being an independent researcher, she works full-time at a charity that helps disabled people find employment. She hopes to publish her thesis as a book in 2026.