Meet Dr Siân Grønlie, Associate Professor in Medieval Literature, Tutorial Fellow at St Anne's College, University of Oxford and co-founder of Neurodiversity at Oxford
Siân is an autistic academic and passionate supporter of the neurodivergent community at the University of Oxford. Alongside Dr Laura Seymour, Siân founded Neurodiversity at Oxford in 2021 with a grant from the Diversity Fund. Run for, by and in collaboration with neurodivergent staff and students, the network creates a connected community and raises awareness of neurodiversity at Oxford. Here, Siân tells us why this matters to her and the neurodivergent community.
Realising I was autistic was a revelation and explained almost everything about my life that hadn’t made sense before.
Dr Siân Grønlie, (She/her)
Associate Professor in Medieval Literature
What brought you to Oxford?
“I was an undergraduate and graduate at Oxford and, apart from a year abroad in Norway, I’ve been at the university in some capacity since I was 18. I was appointed as associate professor in English at St Anne’s about 18 years ago, when my children were 2 years and 6 months old. I teach Old and Middle English, but my main love is Old Norse-Icelandic literature, especially the Icelandic sagas."
What was your experience of being diagnosed as neurodivergent?
“I grew up not knowing that I was neurodivergent, and that was the source of all kinds of difficulties for me. I was really good at some things that other people couldn’t do, but I was really bad at things that everybody else seemed able to do without any effort. Socialising, for example. I didn’t understand my sensory issues at all, so I didn’t know why I was so anxious all the time or why I needed to control my environment so strictly. I thought it was my fault somehow. Realising I was autistic was a revelation and explained almost everything about my life that hadn’t made sense before. I found out by accident when I was researching autism online, so that I could be of more help to my autistic children. It was a huge relief to me to discover this. I was able to let go of my feelings of inadequacy and guilt. For the first time, I could understand why I was the way I was.”
Does your neurodivergence impact your experience of working/teaching/researching here?
“It has had a huge impact on my experience of teaching and working here. Struggling with social interaction and with sensory issues can be a real problem in a college, when so much communal life is focussed around dinners and drinks. My ability to participate is significantly limited by not being able to function effectively in this kind of environment. I’m fine in a small group or one-to-one, but I struggle with anything larger. Neurotypical people find it hard to understand that I can give a lecture to a large group of people, but can’t necessarily go to dinner afterwards. Likewise, most academic conferences are simply inaccessible for autistic people because of the noisy and crowded environment. This can make networking difficult and limit the possibilities for collaborative research.”
Tell us about ‘Neurodiversity at Oxford’ and why you founded it?
“I wanted to set up Neurodiversity at Oxford because, when I was diagnosed, I was keen to get in touch with other people like me in Oxford, but what I discovered was that there was no way within the university to do that. There was no neurodivergent community at all. So, my aim was to set up something that would connect, support, and empower neurodivergent staff and students. It was really important to me that it spanned staff and students because as a neurodivergent student, I really struggled and I think it would have helped enormously to know that there were other people like me out there and to have role models.
We run events, talks, workshops, poetry readings and we've been able to offer some careers training for graduate students too. We also have a small mentoring network which we'd really like to expand."
What more needs to be done?
“There’s a lot more to do in terms of removing the barriers for neurodivergent staff and students. I feel strongly about inclusive teaching being the norm rather than the exception. Everyone can benefit from inclusive teaching, not just neurodivergent students; and making students ask all the time for reasonable adjustments is frustrating and exhausting for them. Having neurodivergent children has made me aware of how the education system is stacked against them from the outset. I would like to see the university develop processes that are genuinely inclusive of neurodivergent students and staff. We need to rethink our admissions process, our methods of assessment, and how we measure career progression.
"In my experience, neurodivergent people can be experts in their field, kind and empathetic tutors, and hard-working and considerate colleagues. Yet it is harder for them to get jobs because of their neurodivergence. This will continue to be the case as long as we expect them to perform as well as neurotypical people at tasks neurotypical people are better at.
"It's really important that Neurodiversity at Oxford continues to exist because it makes neurodivergence within the University visible. A lot of people don’t feel comfortable enough to share their diagnoses with colleagues or peers because they are worried about being judged. It’s important to know that there are other neurodivergent people out there, and that there are spaces where you can be who you are without having to mask. Loneliness can be a big problem if you spend a lot of time trying to hide your neurodivergence. So, community is absolutely crucial for the well-being of neurodivergent people.”
