About

I am a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (i.e. PostDoc) at the University of Roehampton (UK). My project is called ‘ADHD women: Resisting a Neuronormative World‘. I am both an ADHD researcher and an ADHD academic. I use my ‘standpoint’ as an ADHD woman to develop this sociological and intersectional project!

Picture (head shot in black and white) of Dyi

Fieldwork for this project – with ADHD women in England – took place in 2022 (phases 1 and 2) and 2024 (phases 3 and 4). Fieldwork has now been completed. Find more information on the research project here. To receive email updates, register here.

For the project Critical and Intersectional ADHD Thought, I invest in changing knowledge construction about ADHD, in which I challenge, first, the ‘echo chamber of ADHD knowledge construction’ (and therein challenge the denialist model of ADHD and the individual/medical model of ADHD) and, second, seek to contribute to ADHD-affirmative, critical and intersectional knowledge about ADHD, produced by ADHDers themselves. I am working on individual and collaborative publications. And I am also the lead organiser (with Dr Eric Olund) of the special issue Critical and Intersectional ADHD Thought: ADHDers Think Back.

Background

My academic background and interests are quite multidisciplinary. All my work revolves around social in/justice, uses an intersectional lens, and looks at various social categories (e.g. gender, race, dis/ability), and specifically at both disadvantage and privilege. Sometimes I do small projects on the side – for instance during my PhD I completed a small unfunded project on Brexit and disability. You can find more about my research projects here, an overview of my publications here, and my CV here. (For links to my professional profiles elsewhere, scroll to the bottom of the page.)

I completed my PhD on ‘intersectional agency‘ in Sociology at the University of Manchester (viva Dec 2019, Ai/no corrections). My thesis was grounded in ‘phenomenological conversations‘ (a method I will further develop in my postdoc) with racially privileged feminist activists from São Paulo (Brazil). Before this, I completed a combined BA and MA in Languages and Cultures of Latin America, at Leiden University (the Netherlands). Although I learned Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish (or Portuñol, in times of less practice), completing a bespoke curriculum, most of my modules were in International Relations (including a BA minor), Anthropology, Social Movement Studies, and Feminist and Race Critical Studies at other universities. Inclusively, I studied in Brazil (UFRGS, USP) and Mexico (UNAM), and completed an internship in São Paulo (Brazil) with União de Mulheres do Município de São Paulo and Sempreviva Organização Feminista (SOF) – this is where my feminist activism started. My Master’s dissertation concerned an analysis of whiteness in (an analysis in a book chapter on) the Brazilian feminist movement of the Second Wave. 

Teaching

During my Leverhulme EC Fellowship (LECF), I supervise and teach guest lectures at BA and MA levels at the University of Roehampton – mainly in the areas of intersectional disability and neurodiversity studies and qualitative methods. Prior to the LECF, I taught as a lecturer and seminar leader at six different Russell Group and post-1992 universities (e.g. U. of Manchester, UCL, Birkbeck, LSBU). I have taught quite broadly: modules have been in the areas of gender, race, sexuality, disability, social theory, qualitative methods and academic skills, but also, for instance, the self, globalisation, family, personal life, and gender and crime. Additionally, previously I developed a private practice as an academic teacher to support HE students (BA through to ProfDoc/PhD level) with critical thinking, analysis and writing; research methods theory and skills; as well as (informal) dissertation and thesis supervision. Grounded in these teaching practices and critical, crip and intersectional pedagogies, I started to develop ideas around ‘Relaxed Pedagogy’ or ‘RelaxPed’ and now ADHD Pedagogy.

Social justice & organising

While I am now a postdoctoral researcher, my interest in social justice work has its roots in my own international activist background – I organised networks, groups, events and workshops concerned with, for instance, gender/feminism, race/critical whiteness, age/generation, sexuality, and dis/ability. Now I work in academia, I continue this by organising seminars, chairing panels etc. I also organise and facilitate the online and international Intersectional Neurodiversity and Disability Reading Groups. Find an overview of my background in organising here.

It’s not all research, teaching and organising…

I’m lucky to get paid now for something that brings satisfaction and can contribute to change (before the PhD I worked in a Dutch bank in the areas of customer service, admin and mortgages!). Apart form this, I also enjoy reading fiction (including bingeing on crime novel series by female authors), playing (board) games, listening to podcasts, learning crochet, walking in the woods and, before she died, I very much enjoyed spending time with my ageing and disabled dog Lucy. Lucy’s taught me, to end with a disability and ADHD metaphor, that there’s no shame in chasing squirrels and lounging like your life depends on it.

Black and white image of my dog lounging on the sofa

Referring to me….

What I’d want you to call me:

  • I publish under the name: Dyi Dieuwertje Huijg
  • My last name is: HUIJG (not ‘Dieuwertje!’)
  • My pronouns: she/her
  • When we meet, you can call me Dyi, Dyi Huijg, Dr Huijg, Ms Huijg, Dr Dyi – I’ve had students call me Ms G or Dr G! I’m fine with all. As long as it is not Miss or Mrs.
  • Dyi is not my birth name, but it is the name I now go by for the last 20-25ys.
  • Dyi is the only name I listen to in public (please do not call me Dieuwertje, not even if you are or know Dutch; you’re not family and it is weird)
  • If you wonder how to pronounce my name ‘Dyi Huijg’, ‘which happens a lot, listen to my pronunciation. (It looks and sounds harder than it is! ‘Dyi’ is like the English letter ‘G’ (or Jean without the ‘n’). With ‘Huijg’, the ‘h’ comes from deep within the throat/diaphragm. Then the ‘uij’ makes a sound where you move your lower jaw down and forward – a bit as if you’re a wolf, but then a relatively short vowel. With the ‘g’ you can think of a Spanish ‘jota’ but then do it as if you vomit a bit. Trust me: sounds super weird, but works each time.)

Referencing: I really appreciate folk referencing my work, but people seem unsure how to do so, hence:

  • In-text reference: (Huijg, year, page) | or: Huijg (year, page)
  • Bibliography: Huijg, D.D. (year). “Title,” etc. | or: Huijg, Dyi Dieuwertje (year). “Title,” etc
  • NOT: Dieuwertje Huijg, Dyi (Dieuwertje is not my last name!)

Further information & connections

About: Dr Dyi Huijg is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Roehampton. Her research focusses on ADHD women and intersectional injustice, intersectional agency and more. Continue reading ....

Dr Dyi Dieuwertje Huijg