Autistic PhD - Erika Sanborne

@autisticphd.com

379 Followers 10 Following

Researcher, Stats Nerd, Social Science Educator and Teaching Consultant Dedicated to Accessibility and Leaving No One Behind 🔗AutisticPhD.com

Collage of Google Maps images showing our route from the Twin Cities, Minnesota, to Midcoast Maine. It's basically route 90-E until around Albany/western Mass
Most people might think of Crip Time as a reference to us always being late. But I think of Crip Time as an acknowledgement of our finitude, and of the sacredness of time. For me this is about finding that time in the day with the least pain and the most potential for activity. And what I choose to DO in that sacred CRIP TIME reflects my values. But crip time is SO much more than an excuse for us being late.
Morgan the Dog (left) and Erika sit outside under a clear blue sky.
Block letters in two rows read: ICE OUT and FUERA ICE. The cutout inside the letter "O" is in the shape of Minnesota.
Selfie of me (Erika) sitting on my night-time back steps a minute ago, wearing a hoodie and beanie, with a tired expression
Selfie of me (Erika) appearing content, sitting in a living room. Behind me, Rachael the Beloved stands with a crutch decorating our always-up-not-always-decorated Christmas tree
An infant is dancing in public. Text overlay is pointing out sarcastically where the autism enters under the baby's foot. Autistic PhD.com branding below.
How it started: Erika smiles next to a decorated pumpkin with no squirrel bites in it.
Autistic people can cope with disinformation by (1) seeking informational social support, which can help confirm reality, and (2) relying on personal sensory grounding, a return to what you know to be true from your own senses.
Photo of two hands, palms up, coming from two people holding small rocks. One hand has about twelve, similar and mostly gray, flat rocks. The other hand has about 50 little rocks, of a wide variety of colors, textures, and shapes.
Rachael (right) and Erika posing with a llama who is lying in the shade. Both people are wearing N95 masks and leaning in together.
🔴 You know, someone else got some attention at a #Coldplay concert, last month in Vegas. Celine Dion was there with her sons and she playfully danced, and said she had the time of her life. 💕 I love that for her! 🟠 Except no. Skim any comment section on that story, and you'll find the folks doing the most to say that she must be faking her stiff-person syndrome. 🟡 Comedian Drew Lynch got his big break joking about his stutter on TV. He's funny, I'm a fan. He's done years of speech therapy and so sometimes now his stutter is barely there at all. WhenEVER that happens, people accuse him of faking it all along.
The scene: Erika and Rachael the Beloved are in the pool. Morgan the Dog is standing on the ground, and (I feel) talking to Rachael. Text bubbles overlay: Morgan: Mommy? I'm sorry I ate the pool noodle. I thought it was stick. As you know, I do eat sticks... Erika: He did not think a pool noodle was a stick. Morgan: Yes I did! I'm talking to my Mommy right now. Do you know my thoughts, hmm? Erika: Sorry, counselor, I don't buy it. I see a demonstrated pattern of behavior. Morgan: This is why Mommy is my favorite.
This text-based graphic is part of a series of 8 in total. Text overlay: Just Go Somewhere: An Emotional Regulation Strategy in Honor of My Gram Everything can seem out of control and threatening right now in the world near and far. And while I’m not (at all) getting into the CAUSES of that distress, I am reminded of something that can actually help, and I’d love to share that with you all. Here is the Strategy for You to “Go Somewhere” This works in the heat of the moment when you’re overwhelmed with Big Feelings. This doesn’t stop the Big Feelings per se, but it can help you reconnect at your baseline.
Screenshot from a Google Meet call. Seimith is centered in frame: a Millennial with long hair, smiling and looking into the camera. I'm Erika, in the inset: a Gen X person with short hair, glasses, and a slightly confused expression. We're both in well-lit home offices. Seimith's background looks tidy and professional, like she might be about to launch a shiny new tech product tomorrow or something. I've got a Pac-man sign behind me, because Reasons.
text-based infographic: Students have been using AI since it became widely available in 2022. And in 2025, when they’re told AI will take over all the good jobs? They use the hell out of it. – Erika Sanborne, Autistic PhD Why Real Learning Is Disappearing This whole process accelerates a rapid decline in our society’s ability to reason through its own problems. With fewer funded research opportunities and a growing reliance on generative AI, universities risk becoming less Sites of Knowledge Production and more Places of Technical Mimicry and I hate that, for everybody. What I hate most about this (as an autistic person who values discovery and cares about students more than I am getting into here) is that students aren’t realizing what they are losing. Read more at AutisticPhD.com
"Nobody calls me chicken."says Marty McFly in this screenshot of Back to the Future 2. Below the pic, a second text overlay adds commentary saying, Not the BTTF character who I'd normally associate, but... 🤷🌮
A black-and-white political cartoon depicts a young woman seated at a school desk with an open book. She looks confused and anxious as a group of stern men surrounds her, trench-coated men in fedoras taking notes and interrogating her. One man points to a large classroom map showing the USSR (!) and parts of Europe. Another examines a wastebasket. A briefcase on the floor is labeled “State and Local 'Anti-Subversive' Committees in the U.S.” The wall features a portrait of a man in a wig labeled “Jefferson.” The cartoon’s caption reads, “You Read Books, Eh?” suggesting suspicion toward education and intellectual inquiry, referencing anti-communist paranoia in mid-20th-century America. The cartoon is signed “Herblock,” a well-known political cartoonist.
Erika Sanborne generated a line graph overlaying the US annual autism prevalence data according to the US CDC with the average annual stock price of Home Depot stock according to the historical records of Macrotrends. These graphs across the past three decades (1992-2022) have a very similar shape. 🤔
Image Description: Side by side screenshots from the PAA 2025 app, showing this year's meeting on the left and my research topic on the right, not being presented today. "The Empowerment Nexus: Education, Technology and Safety among Ethiopian Women." - Erika Sanborne, University of Minnesota
Erika is wearing over-ear headphones and glasses, with a somewhat doubting facial expression, making eye contact with the lens in this black and white photo.
A multicolor graphic of terms in a circle: dopamine deficiency – novelty seeking – reskilling – all or nothing thinking – abrupt decisions – workplace inaccessibility – and, finally, cycle continuation.
Screenshot of the accepted abstract: Poverty and conflict disproportionately affect women in sub-Saharan Africa. Ethiopian women face compounded challenges from public health emergencies, violence, and climate shocks. This study investigates the impact of education and mobile phone ownership on women's empowerment domains of personal safety (freedom from interpersonal violence) and agency (decision-making power in family planning), using longitudinal data from the IPUMS PMA Ethiopia 2021–2023 cohort. The study includes women aged 15–49 who were pregnant or recently gave birth, surveyed across rural and urban regions. Mixed-effects regression analyses were conducted, and results suggest that higher education levels and mobile phone ownership are significantly associated with reduced interpersonal violence. These findings underscore the importance of access to both education and technology in enhancing women's personal safety, suggesting pathways to support women's empowerment in Ethiopia amidst ongoing crises.
This is a grid of six photos showing my way back to my car. Images include the street, building, elevator, and Jeep, with arrows and pointers.
This image is of a young woman with long brown hair and medium-brown complexion. She appears to be on pause. The post's text overlays the image.
There is no speech in this video, which depicts me (Erika) happily feeding leaves to Bandit, the free range llama.