Today we welcome Nick Simonetti, who joins The Platform as a 2024-25 Bridging Fellow. Nick’s PhD, entitled ‘Towards a Neuroinclusive Theory of the Contemporary: Representing the Temporality and Aesthetis of the Contemporary in Ten Novels of Neurodivergence’ was completed at St Andrews University where he has most recently been a postdoctoral fellow on a literary-digital humanities project ‘Forecasting Reproduction in Space’. Nick will be based in the Measurement Lab, working also with the Narrative Practices Lab and the Narrative and Cognition Labs, and the Department of English Studies.
Read on for our interview with Nick about his research and interests.
1. If your research was a film, what would the title be?
This is a hard question; the title would need to be something catchy but also capable of encompassing all the disciplines and subject areas intersecting in my research. In a playful nod to the Marvel Universe, I would likely title my film: Neurodivergent Imaginaries Assemble: About Time.
2. What will you be doing during your Bridging Fellowship?
During my Bridging Fellowship, I plan to focus on three key goals: First, I aim to publish my first monograph – provisionally titled Neurodiversity and the Contemporary – alongside additional findings from my doctoral research. Second, I will design my next major project, which will explore OCD, time, and ablenationalism – the selective inclusion of certain disabled people into late capitalist culture based on their approximation to the normative bodymind. Finally, I look forward to networking and collaborating with neurodiversity and medical humanities scholars from across the Platform and partner institutions to reinforce interdisciplinary approaches to OCD and obsessive-compulsive temporalities.
3. What expertise and experiences will you be drawing on during the fellowship?
During the fellowship, I will draw on my expertise as a comparatist specialising in ideas of neurodivergence and disability in English and French contemporary literature. In addition, I have a strong interest in Contemporary Studies – a diverse field focused on understanding “the contemporary” as a temporal-aesthetic category marked by significant shifts in temporalities and social structures – particularly its connection to neurodivergent people’s relationship to time.
4. Why are you excited about working in The Platform?
The Platform offers a research environment unlike any I’ve experienced before. The opportunity to meet and work with scholars whose research has shaped my doctoral project is inspiring. As a literary scholar, I’m also very interested in how the Edinburgh International Book Festival can be reimagined as a space of research and experimentation beyond the classroom or the science lab.
5. What changes would you like to see as a result of your research?
A decade ago, William Viney, Felicity Callard and Angela Woods called for more entanglements and risks in the Critical Medical Humanities. Over the past ten years, new alliances have been forged, but there are opportunities for more critical and interdisciplinary encounters that remain unexplored. My aim is to examine the connections between Contemporary Studies and Neurodiversity Studies – and allied subject areas – in detail. If Contemporary Studies strive to explain the conditions and institutional shifts of the present, Neurodiversity Studies concern themselves with newer approaches to human neurological variation. By discussing the intersections between the two, I hope to not only expand the genealogies of Neurodiversity Studies but also establish neurodiversity as a central, relevant force in discussions of contemporaneity.
6. What interests or hobbies do you have outside your research that might surprise people?
One hobby that often surprises people is my passion for film photography. It’s a completely different world from my research, and I find it creatively stimulating. I also enjoy cooking and I like to think I’m a good chef. As an Italian, I like experimenting with different cuisines – there’s nothing better than exchanging research ideas over a good pasta dish!
We warmly welcome Nick to Durham University and look forward to working with him over the next twelve months.
