Research Seminar: 'Neurodivergence is relationship': reading literature in neurodivergent community

This talk is about neurodivergence in early modern European literature (my project focuses on 1550-1750 CE). I argue that neurodivergence is not a 'thing' we find in early modern texts but rather is about our relationship with texts and each other. I describe some of the frameworks I use(d) for reading literary texts in community with other neurodivergent people, and people with experience of mental illness and suicidal ideation, in my projects New Understandings of Hamlet (2022-2023, British Academy) and AMEND (2025-2030, Welcome Trust), and in the classroom, and share the insights gained.

Laura Seymour works on neurodivergence and early modern literature. She is a senior lecturer in English at Swansea University and PI of the project AMEND - eArly Modern European NeuroDivergence funded by the Wellcome Trust. She is the author of Refusing to Behave in Early Modern Literature (Edinburgh University Press, 2022), Shakespeare and Neurodiversity (Cambridge University Press, 2025), and various articles and book chapters on early modern literature, history, pedagogy, and neurodivergence. Her forthcoming books are Early Modern Neurodivergence (Oxford University Press) and The Sedentary Renaissance, co-authored with Eva Lauenstein (Brill).

Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay, free for use under the Pixabay content license.