Meg Fereday
@meg-fereday.bsky.social
210 followers 350 following 30 posts
Autistic PhD student at unisouthampton.bsky.social researching young people's digital queer-neurodivergent resistance practices. ⚛️ @disconetwork.bsky.social Affiliate 2025 🤝 Member @neuronarratives @QueerMedHums @ndhumanities.bsky.social they/them
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meg-fereday.bsky.social
Never felt such solidarity + belonging in conference space than at the first ever Critical Neurodiversity Studies conf this week @durhamimh.bsky.social, amongst the many incredible independent scholars, artists and activists building up this field.
so tired! so inspired! longer reflections to come!!
A selfie of Meg, a white person in their late twenties, wearing a teal black and white stripy top, square glasses and a gold star sticker on each cheekbone. Meg is smiling happily at the camera as they’ve just left an amazing panel discussion on neuroqueer performance at the Critical Neurodiversity Conference.
meg-fereday.bsky.social
oh hey! If only I could attend yours too! Well if you see me around before your panel, pls do come say hi :)
meg-fereday.bsky.social
the Critical Neurodiversity Studies Conference @durhamimh.bsky.social starts tomorrow! Wishing I could attend literally every talk/panel/workshop.

I’ll be speaking about why critical media studies is essential to a critical turn in neurodiversity studies - catch me on the Digital panel tomorrow 🤸!
Reposted by Meg Fereday
lizziereed.bsky.social
Do this! Couldn't be a way to make it easier!
katymontgomerie.com
If you're a British trans person or ally I really think you MUST fill in the EHRC consultation on whether to segregate trans people from society

If you need a hand doing that, @notrightruth.bsky.social and I will be doing a respond together live stream Tuesday 8pm!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wfw...
Respond to the EHRC consultation together! With Katy Montgomerie and Dr Ruth Pearce ❤️
YouTube video by Katy Montgomerie
www.youtube.com
meg-fereday.bsky.social
got a room full of people laughing about network graphs last week at the @aies-edinburgh.bsky.social Queer Data Showcase - who knew!

Thanks to @kevinguyan.bsky.social @sj-bennett.bsky.social @mystikaglamoor.bsky.social and all my co-presenters for a fantastic evening ☺️

📸Daniel McGowan Photography
Meg (they/them) is standing at a lectern looking down at their notes and laughing. They're wearing a short-sleeved black turtleneck and iridescent-pink blue jeans. Behind them is a PowerPoint slide showing a close-up of some network graph data. A person with mid-length turquoise hair sits in front of the camera to the left of Meg, watching their presentation.
meg-fereday.bsky.social
en route Edinburgh to share my work on ✨neuroqueer network analysis✨ at @aies-edinburgh.bsky.social Queer Data Showcase tomorrow night!

Tickets here 👇
www.ai-ethics.org/queer-data-s...
meg-fereday.bsky.social
Can’t wait to read this!
meg-fereday.bsky.social
🥰 So great to share my experience in the scheme! Thanks #NNMHR :)

NDHums encourages mutual support between neurodivergent mentors and mentees at different stages in their careers - a really rare, empowering opportunity for both.
ndhumanities.com/mentorship-s...
Mentorship Scheme 2025 – ND Hums
ndhumanities.com
meg-fereday.bsky.social
A vital look into the digital, collective origins of 'neuroqueer' - stretching all the way back to autistic Usenet forums in the early 00s.
Internet history is so crucial to critical neurodiversity studies!

Asks: what might a neuroqueer citation politics look like?
drdyidhuijg.bsky.social
on the origins/origin story of 'neuroqueer': Perry Zurn's (2024) "Re-Citing the Origins of Neuroqueer" muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu
meg-fereday.bsky.social
Papers, videos, visual art, zines! - this is gonna be something special

CFP Neurodiversity special issue -
Towards a Critical Turn in Neurodiversity Studies:
Bridging the Arts, Humanities and the Social Sciences

Abstracts deadline 3rd Aug 25
journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cm...
journals.sagepub.com
Reposted by Meg Fereday
rachelcdailey.bsky.social
Governments own research on whats triggered the increase in PIP claims found its mainly from health deterioration and needing more support, with many told about it by health professionals or the dwp itself - not social media

www.gov.uk/government/p...
Triggers to claiming Personal Independence Payment
www.gov.uk
meg-fereday.bsky.social
I'm a member of the @disconetwork.bsky.social Affiliate Program 2025! So far loving being part of such a radical and fun group of researchers - meet us here 👇
www.disconetwork.org/affiliates
Affiliates — DISCO Network
www.disconetwork.org
Reposted by Meg Fereday
neuro-observant.bsky.social
We’ve literally JUST had Neurodiversity Celebration Week. To raise awareness, to celebrate difference, to help make neurodivergent lives better

And then we get this from a national newspaper. Wow, just wow
danielsohege.bsky.social
I would potentially have a lot more time for headlines like this if there was any other way for many people to recognise that they are neurodivergent and start taking steps to actually improve their lives. As there aren't, as there is little support even when diagnosed, I have zero time for them.
We need to stop diagnosing each other with autism and ADHD

As Bella Ramsey reveals their autism diagnosis came after a 'The Last Of Us' crew member spotted the signs, Helen Coffey questions why we've become so emboldened to pronounce neurodivergence in others
meg-fereday.bsky.social
First chapter of @disconetwork.bsky.social’s Technoskepticism offers the clearest, most radically compassionate articulation of “TikTok diagnoses” I’ve read so far

Dare to diagnose yourself, again and again; brazenly say what your bodymind tells you; afford yourself space to be believed + cared for
Page 28 of Technoskepticism by DISCO Network. Highlighted passages read “we must rethink digital self-diagnosis as a bodily necessity. Precarious people self-diagnose in the face of rampant misdiagnosis and non-diagnosis. We need self-diagnosis. What might it mean to rethink self-diagnosis as a nourishing refusal of the digital clinic?” and “Self-diagnosis provides a means for becoming: it can offer a transitory, just-for-now space that enables people to grapple with the complexities of their bodyminds.”
meg-fereday.bsky.social
labour’s benefit cuts look to be explicitly targeted at neurodivergent folk - despite the long-touted statistic that ~80% of diagnosed UK autistic adults are unemployed.

neurodiversity is a class issue, now more than ever

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Meg Fereday
katbamkapow.bsky.social
kishonna gray and @haimson.bsky.social in conversation about trans technologies -- tech that is made by & for the trans community to serve their needs! oliver is talking abt how queer & trans & gnc folks are, often, AI haters and prioritize tech that foregrounds care, community, and liberation
two seated people holding microphones event info for trans technologies book event that is currently happening as i am posting this. event was hosted by UMSI, featuring a photo of oliver haimson and the cover of this book, trans technologies
meg-fereday.bsky.social
More excited than ever to get my hands on a copy of Trans Technologies after @haimson.bsky.social’s talk today. Thanks for answering my question, and for letting those of us outside the US dial in!

(brb thinking about how technological trans care might be entangled w/ neuroqueer digital practices…)
meg-fereday.bsky.social
I’ve had such a warm welcome to @unisouthampton.bsky.social this month!
Highlight had to be this zine-making workshop for LGBT PGRs, surrounded by the brilliantly curated Glitchy Kinship exhibition from @lizziereed.bsky.social and @miloustella.bsky.social at WSA Gallery ⛓️‍💥✨
meg-fereday.bsky.social
Currently searching for organisations/support groups/outreach initiatives/networks for young people in the UK who are both queer and neurodivergent - and I'm coming up empty!

bluesky hivemind, any recommendations?
meg-fereday.bsky.social
task-switching from literally anything into writing mode, the boss level of my adhd experience
Reposted by Meg Fereday
joejukes.bsky.social
Myself & @rachelbayer.bsky.social are organising an @rgsibg.bsky.social panel session on Asexual Geographies!

Read the Call for Papers and submit an abstract here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Meg Fereday
makenakelly.bsky.social
With the looming TikTok ban and Meta axing fact-checking, the internet's future is looking bleaker by the day.

Wrote about it and more in this week's #WIREDPoliticsLab newsletter
www.wired.com/story/the-in...
The Internet’s Future Is Looking Bleaker By the Day
While Meta enacts the X playbook, TikTok is on the verge of being declared illegal. Who wins? Probably not internet users.
www.wired.com
Reposted by Meg Fereday
esqueer.net
Meta literally created a LGBTQ exception for calling someone mentally ill as an insult. You can't do it for any other group except LGBTQ people.
The image is from a "Transparency Center" document and lists guidelines regarding acceptable and prohibited content for insults. It mentions:

1. Insults about:

Character, such as cowardice, dishonesty, criminality, and sexual promiscuity or immorality.

Mental characteristics, including but not limited to accusations of stupidity, intellectual capacity, and mental illness, as well as unsupported comparisons among politically correct (PC) groups based on inherent intellectual traits.

2. Highlighted section:

The document allows allegations of mental illness or abnormality when tied to gender or sexual orientation, referencing political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality. It also acknowledges the non-serious use of terms like "weird."