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Nyika

@puzzledbyadream.bsky.social

750 followers 640 following 4.8K posts

PhD student studying neurodivergent culture and the neoliberal standard of ‘normal’ within universities. Neurodivergent, pan, sea enjoyer, lady-in-waiting to Astrid and Fin the cats. Belle and Sebastian fan, 6music Dad. 🇬🇧 in 🇳🇿

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · Jun 15

Hello, I’m Nyika. I’m a neurodivergent 30-something newly living in Auckland, Aotearoa NZ. I am in the first year of studying studying for a PhD in neurodiversity, the transition to adulthood, the neoliberal idea of ‘normal’, and critical pedagogy.

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 3h

What complicates things is that my visa doesn't allow me to be self-employed

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 3h

Could do with some like actual casual work over the summer as it's occurred to me I literally just won't have any extra income then. Quite hard to find such a thing, though. Maybe I'll sign up with an admin agency?

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 3h

I have learned a lesson and that lesson is "do not put any amount of peanut butter in a dishwasher"

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 5h

I guess it’s fine, I was going to get paid the amount they’ll pay me this week anyway, I just need to squirrel it away.

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 5h

In ADHD-related news, I read my marking contract wrong and accidentally claimed all my marking hours before I’d finished all my marking. Bollocks.

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 5h

Love the days when I take my adhd meds and fall asleep. ADHD is weird.

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks Jacob!

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 1d

Only just occurred to me that I am anxious and finding it difficult to get to sleep because I’m on a marking deadline, a thesis proposal draft deadline, and I’m doing a dress rehearsal of a conference presentation tomorrow.

Reposted by Nyika

Dan McPainInTheKnees @danmckee.bsky.social · 1d

“What’s the charge? Eating a seal?”

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 1d

Post you from a different era.

2008. Oh no.

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 1d

!!!!!

Screenshot of the first page of my book chapter. It reads: "Chapter 8
Lifting the ‘Double Mask’: Neurodivergent WorkingClass Students and the University Experience
Nyika Suttie
The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Abstract
There are similarities between the adaptations a workingclass student must make to both ‘fit in’ culturally and
succeed at university, and the ‘masking’ or ‘camouflaging’
that neurodivergent students employ to hide or temper
autistic traits, usually with the aim of social assimilation.
Few studies have examined the complexities of living and
studying at the intersection of these identities and how
these are uniquely interwoven. Universities are
environments designed and managed by the middle-classes (
Reay, 2001) within which certain ‘rules’ and manners are
inherently expected. Similarly, universities, as well as
wider society, embody and embed neurotypical institutional
social practices which do not accept neurodivergent ways
of being ( Jurgens, 2020). Thus, the dual existence of
identities outside of the expected ‘norm’ means workingclass, neurodivergent students must expend significant
extra effort simply to survive and succeed in Higher
Education. Twenty-eight neurodivergent working-class
people were surveyed. The resulting themes relate to hiding
the true self, hidden rules, becoming the ‘other’ and doing
university differently.
Keywords: Neurodivergence, working-class, Bourdieu,
masking, difference, assimilation"

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 1d

The book containing my first published chapter is out today! The rest of the contributors are all cracking as well. Ask your library to buy it! bookstore.emerald.com/working-clas...

Working-Class People in UK Higher Education

Guided by a collaborative and community oriented editorial process which embodies the ethos of working-class communities, chapters focus on five main section areas: academics, students and student journeys, pedagogy, teaching & learning, non-academic staff in Higher Education, and a final section dedicated to practical steps for the future.

bookstore.emerald.com

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 1d

Poor, lovely, tragic Stephen Gately :(

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 1d

When you think about it, weird load of songs Boyzone did. Cat Stevens, The Osmonds, that song from Whistle Down the Wind???

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 1d

Very late to the party but I’m watching the Boyzone documentary. Louis Walsh is pretty much an actual sociopath, isn’t he?

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 1d

Well, one of the officers pulling over HGVs this morning was wearing one. Maybe that's just him.

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 1d

Delighted to report that in the summer the police in NZ have little (well, quite big, wide brimmed) bush hats with a police tartan trim.

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 2d

Marking is also writing “references?” an unholy number of times.

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 2d

I spot spelling mistakes all the time and thus baselessly think I’d be a great copy editor.

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 2d

I am finding marking for me is a lot of resisting the urge to correct all the SpAG, because that’s less important than “is this a coherent point”

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 2d

Doing a very large amount of marking at the moment. If you are a uni student: we can tell if you’ve not been to lectures, and we can tell if you’ve used AI. Especially if you use it without reading what it spits out.

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 2d

One of my neurodivergent “tells” as a child is how much I hated it when people “talked in songs”. Like, it was genuinely upsetting to me. Turns out, it still makes me cringe inside out for some reason.

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Reposted by Nyika

Alicia Kraft @aliciakraft.bsky.social · Jun 30

Watching a "family friendly" nature documentary. The narrator says "He's asking her on a date!" over footage of a male spraying piss near a female and screaming HWONK HWONK

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 2d

I can confirm to you that you definitely have two cats on your hands there.

Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 2d

They did have some wool slug things! We will get them.