In this second edition of my ongoing interviews with Neurodivergent professors here at Trent, we speak with Derek Newman-Stille (They/Them), a nine-time Aurora Award winner for fantasy and science fiction writing, and Trent PhD candidate, who specializes in fat studies, disability studies, and queer studies. The most succinct portrayal I can give you of Derek is their Rate My Professor page, where they boast an incredibly impressive 4.9 out 5 rating, with the top comment being “Derek is a cutie.” 

The first time I ever met with Derek was over Zoom when I interviewed them, and in the two months  since our meeting, they have continued to be an absolute cutie. They’ve checked in on me during exams, they’ve graciously taken pictures for the very article you’re reading, and we’ve bumped into each other at an art gallery, and engaged in a wonderful conversation about local art and its importance.

Derek is queer, neurodivergent, and disabled— placing them at a crossroads of some of society’s favourite punching bags. It is this varied perspective that made me want to speak with them. One particular item of interest which I personally don’t often consider is how neurodivergence can be considered a disability. As someone who finds themselves inundated with neurodivergent friends, I often forget the negative connotations that the term—and the conditions it enfolds—have carried. 

The concept of disability is a fascinating one. A term with roots in eugenics which by definition, carries notions of being incapable. Derek challenges these notions and champions a new understanding of the term where disabilities are understood as “Barriers from society, not from [the self].” 

Additionally, they spoke of “disability as a culture” and specifically of how people who’ve been labelled as disabled have formed support groups and communities for each other. 

Derak also spoke of how they as a teacher emphasize the importance of building disabled communities. With the often-heavy topics that their courses bring up around disability and fat shaming, to other shades of bigotry and trauma, one of Derek’s students describe their work as “half academia, half counseling”. 

As both queer and neurodivergent, I also seized on the opportunity to speak with Derek about self-diagnosis, wherein people identify as neurodivergent without a formal medical diagnosis. While some people (almost entirely outside of the neurodivergent community, interestingly enough) chafe at the idea and make witty comments about the soy-irradiated youth of today, Derek finds self-diagnosis to be a very important aspect to the neurodivergent community, and mocked the concept of gatekeeping what they called “neurospiciness”. 

They decried the “medical hegemony” of diagnoses, pointing to its hideous history of practices, and the immense financial barriers that prevent many in the community from acquiring a formal diagnosis (for example, in Ontario, it’s usually in the $2-4K area).  

Like the others I’ve spoken to for this series, Derek experienced no small amount of stigma during their time in school. During our conversation Derek spoke to how the systems that uphold institutions, and especially how tenure, can sometimes protect ableist professors by reducing the ability of students and administration to bring consequences for their actions. 

One rather poignant story was of Derek approaching a teacher to ask for accommodations, and being told “I’m not going to slow down my class for you.” They also told me about how when they were in grad school, they were told by someone that they weren’t capable of getting a masters. 

Derek keeps themselves quite busy. On top of being a professor, they are a multi-award-winning writer, author, and activist. They’ve recently published a new zine called “The R Word Room” about their experiences as a child labelled as “special”. They use their art not only as an outlet, but also as a beacon. They stressed the importance of giving back to their communities, and spreading awareness. They talked about how important it is that not only neurodivergent people, but also queer and disabled people are celebrated and  given the opportunity to shine.  Society needs voices from people with different perspectives, and different solutions. 

“[Society] needs neuro-spiciness because society is so neuro-typical,” they said.

As someone that uses a walker, Derek is intimately familiar with the accessibility at Trent. 

Essentially, Trent’s accessibility is shit. Even I, as an able-bodied person, have struggled with accessibility on campus. Derek spoke passionately of the many faults in Trent’s infrastructure. Poor elevator and ramp coverage, people “Turning off electronic door openers because it was a waste of electricity” and the narrow confines of many hallways and rooms.

They also mentioned that most of the accessible routes the university does have are often long and meandering routes that take far longer for someone to get where they are goingDerek spoke to the effect of this paltry support, and how it is alienating. “They don’t expect us to be here," they said. 

Derek wasn’t too harsh in their comments however. They mentioned how bad accessibility can be everywhere, and said that “Trent is at least trying”, but further stated that it is “Trying but failing”.