Postdoctoral Scholar and Project Manager

Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada; Hybrid

This position has an initial appointment of 8 months.

Location - This role is hybrid with a mix of remote and in-person work at North Campus Edmonton.

The AIDAN Lab invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow to serve as Project Manager for Phase 1 of the Autistic Research on Writing Network (ARWN). Working under the supervision of Dr. Heather Brown, the successful candidate will provide scientific, operational, and team leadership for a large, interdisciplinary, multisite study of Autistic adolescents’ writing.

ARWN Phase 1 is the first large-scale mixed-methods study designed to comprehensively examine written language development among Autistic youth aged 14 to 17. Writing is central to school participation, communication, self-expression, and identity development. However, research on Autistic writing has often relied on narrow, deficit-based comparisons that do not capture the complexity of Autistic adolescents’ writing abilities, experiences, and identities.ARWN addresses this gap by examining:

• What Autistic adolescents produce in writing and how they write;
• How they understand themselves and their experiences as writers;
• How writing relates to language, reading, executive functioning, motivation, self-concept, sensory experiences, Autistic traits, and contextual factors; and
• How Autistic writing can be understood in more accurate, holistic, and neurodiversity-affirming ways.
   

The project will recruit 150 Autistic adolescents from across Canada and the United States. Across five online sessions, participants will complete a protocol involving standardized assessments, questionnaires, and interviews (including discussion about their own authentic writing samples). The dataset integrates psychoeducational assessments, parent- and self-report measures, typed and handwritten writing activities, and first-hand accounts of participants’ writing identities, strategies, communities, experiences, and definitions of good writing.

ARWN is also a participatory and capacity-building initiative. Autistic community partners contribute as co-researchers, Autistic perspectives inform study materials and procedures, and the project provides meaningful training opportunities for junior researchers, including Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent team members.

About the AIDAN Lab and ARWN

The AIDAN Lab cultivates a diverse, safe, accessible, and welcoming research environment. The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary team of faculty members, students, research staff, and community partners committed to amplifying the perspectives of multiply marginalized Autistic people and translating research into meaningful educational and systems change.

The Postdoctoral Fellow will work with a high degree of independence while receiving mentorship from the ARWN Phase 1 research team, which brings together complementary expertise in autism, writing and literacy development, communication, assessment, mental health, and neurodiversity-affirming education.

Dr. Heather Brown (University of Alberta, Faculty of Education) serves as Principal Investigator, providing overall project leadership, coordinating the multidisciplinary team, mentoring trainees, and ensuring that the research is grounded in Autistic lived experience and participatory, inclusive practices.

Dr. Matthew Zajic (Teachers College, Columbia University) serves as Co-Principal Investigator and contributes expertise in writing development, literacy, psychoeducational assessment, quantitative and longitudinal methods, and writing instruction for Autistic students and students with learning and developmental disabilities.

Dr. Kristie Asaro-Saddler (University at Albany) serves as a Co-Investigator and brings expertise in evidence-based writing instruction, self-regulation, special education, and the experiences of Autistic students, families, and educators. She supports interpreting students’ writing experiences and translating findings into practical educational resources.

Dr. Pamela Filiatrault-Veilleux (University of Alberta, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine) serves as a Co-Investigator and contributes expertise in speech-language pathology, language comprehension, personal narratives, multilingualism, and responsive assessment. She also strengthens the team’s capacity to include Francophone and multilingual Autistic adolescents.

Dr. Vivian Lee (Carleton University) serves as a Co-Investigator and contributes expertise in emotional development, mental health, family well-being, psychosocial interventions, implementation science, and program evaluation.

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