Gabriel Kunst

Autism, Equity and the Faculty Hiring Process (opinion) Sociability is not the same as hireability. Colleges can take concrete steps to make the academic hiring process fairer for neurodivergent candidates.

Excited to share a new op-ed @insidehighered.com on autism and academic hiring. I argue that sociability and hireability aren’t the same thing, and that universities can take concrete steps to make hiring fairer for autistic scholars.

#Autism #HigherEd

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...

Stop Meeting Students Where They Are What I learned when I finally started assigning the hard reading again.

Great essay @theatlantic.com! Too often, when we try to “meet students where they are,” I think we’re really meeting them where we assume they are. In my experience, when we trust students with demanding texts, they rise to the challenge 📚

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Ça me désole, mais franchement, comment pourrais-je être surprise.

Congrats! 👏🏻

Philip K Dick movies all have names like CORTICAL IMPASSE and are based on short stories called like "Let's See What's Going On Down at the Brain Factory"

Was reminded of my very favorite tweet of all time today:

Unprestigious academia - University Affairs How I unlearned academic elitism.

Prestige isn’t neutral, but unlearning it can open higher ed to far more voices, paths, and possibilities. I wrote about why that matters. Link to my @universityaffairs.bsky.social piece on the topic 👇🏻

#academia #university #highered

universityaffairs.ca/opinion/unpr...

Autism, ADHD, etc. ➡️ injuries ➡️ people with these injuries are sick ➡️ 🇺🇸 is in BANKRUPTCY because of these people ➡️ these people don’t qualify for military service ➡️ the 🇺🇸 is losing power on the international stage… Did I get his “argument” right? 🥴

It's Autism Acceptance Month. If you are not already accepted by an autistic person you have 27 days left.

Merci pour ton soutien et ta bienveillance, Audrey! 😌

Pour souligner le #moisdelautisme, je signe un article-essai-travail de recherche-témoignage sur la parentalité autistique, soit le fait d’élever des enfants (autistes ou non) en tant que personne autiste. Disponible gratuitement ici (p. 48-50): www.autisme.qc.ca/wp-content/u...

#actuallyautistic

My wife was admitted to the hospital on January 1st with advanced esophagogastric cancer. The prognosis is not encouraging, but we’re hoping for a miracle. She’s staying strong, positive, and resilient, and we’d appreciate your prayers and kind thoughts during these challenging times.

Apparently it needs saying, again, as autism is used as an excuse for bullshit, again, but:

AUTISM DOES NOT MAKE YOU LESS AWARE OF YOUR ACTIONS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES. IT MAKES YOU HYPER-AWARE AND ANXIOUS ABOUT THEM.

I love this so much!

At the inauguration, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wore a distinctive collar adorned with cowrie shells, which are believed to offer protection from evil in African traditions.

This choice mirrors the late Justice Ginsburg’s practice of using collars to convey a message.

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is a hero 💙

Vaccines don’t cause autism. But also, autism is not something that needs to be prevented. It’s just a different way to be & the only “problem” is that some neurotypical people are uncomfortable interacting with autistic people who are arbitrarily forced to adhere to the way we do things.

Edmontonians: Live in one of the northernmost cities in the world.

Edmontonians on the first snow day of the year: Forget how to drive, like it’s the storm of the century and they were not expecting any of this. In Winter. Even though it happens. Every. Year.

Christophe Tarkos — Anachronisme

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#booksky #20daybookchallenge #books #bookchallenge

20/20

Autistic Disturbances: Theorizing Autism Poetics from the DSM to Robinson Crusoe — Julia Miele Rodas, foreword by Melanie Yergeau

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#booksky #20daybookchallenge #books #bookchallenge

19/20

Félicitations!

You know what we haven’t had in a while? A good ol’ dancing mania. That’s the kind of cultural reset we all need. Let 2025 be the year we bring them back.

Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari — Capitalisme et schizophrénie 2: Mille plateaux

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#booksky #20daybookchallenge #books #bookchallenge

18/20

Honouring the women killed at École Polytechnique ‘is not enough’  - McGill Reporter At McGill’s memorial ceremony for the École Polytechnique shooting, survivor Dominique Bérubé, now VP (Research and Innovation), speaks publicly about that day for the first time

On the 35th anniversary of the École Polytechnique tragedy, the McGill community gathered to pay tribute to the fourteen young women who lost their lives. mcgill.ca/x/wzh

“I would’ve never guessed this person had a disability, they look/act so normal” is not the compliment you think it is, folks.

Réjean Ducharme — L’avalée des avalés

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#booksky #20daybookchallenge #books #bookchallenge

17/20

La conception du langage qui est à l’œuvre dans Finnegans Wake est purement lexicale. Le livre est un gros puncake. Mais «en-dessous», qu’est-ce qu’on trouve? La bonne vieille phrase anglaise, la plus classique, la plus scolaire, parfumée de rhétorique.

Parce que, parallèlement au Jacques Roubaud artsy et au Jacques Roubaud intello, il y avait aussi le Jacques Roubaud sassy, une citation que je trouve délicieuse et hilarante:

On a more positive note though, there are exciting opportunities out there and I hope you find a position (fellowship, internship, tenure-track) that you enjoy and where you are valued!

The job-search vortex is so exhausting and frustrating! Hiring/evaluation committees want to see that you’re active in research and doing exciting things, but you can’t do that because you’re spending all your time and energy applying for jobs and trying to survive without one… 😩

Effectivement! Mais pour les avantages sociaux supplémentaires, ils sont honnêtement beaucoup moins nombreux/importants qu’on pourrait le croire. Et plusieurs sont simplement des acquis d’une autre époque qui n’ont, comme tu le mentionnes, pas été améliorés depuis des décennies.

J’imagine! On nous met dans la tête que les garderies subventionnées représentent un système unique (alors qu’en Alberta je paie 9$/jour). On nous vend les merveilles de l’assurance médicament (mais on oublie de dire que ça coûte des centaines de $/année). Bref…