PhD candidate Myfan Jordan has been awarded the inaugural Bill Richdale Senior PhD Research Grant to support their research exploring how Australian workplaces can be reimagined through neurodivergent-led codesign.
Myfan’s PhD project, Neuroqueering the Australian Workplace, will investigate how workplace cultures can better support Autistic and ADHD adults by centring lived experience, psychological safety and diverse ways of knowing. The grant will provide crucial support for the project’s co-design phase, allowing Myfan to work alongside neurodivergent community members to develop new approaches to workplace inclusion.
“I’m super excited to have received the Bill Richdale Senior grant, as it will allow me to undertake a genuine codesign process which recognises the value of participants’ lived experience in creative and innovative ways,” Myfan said.
“It’s a huge honour to have received this grant. It will allow me to platform Autistic and ADHD voices in my PhD research in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to.”
Gender is key to the project, as both the thesis and codesign phase will be grounded in emergent ‘neuroqueering’ theory. Neuroqueering works both as a noun, describing neurodivergent + (gender) queer individuals, and also as a verb, a disruptive mechanism challenging the binaries of ‘normal’ and ‘other’ in neurocognition, as queer theory challenges essentialism in gender and sexuality.
Through the support of the Bill Richdale Senior PhD Research Grant, Myfan will be able to invest more deeply in the codesign methodology underpinning the research, including compensating participants for their expertise, and developing creative tools and resources to support collaboration.
The grant was established by Emeritus Professor Amanda Richdale (left) in memory of her father, Bill Richdale Senior, and reflects her own understanding of the difference that additional support can make during a PhD journey.
“When I completed my PhD as a mature-age student at La Trobe University under the supervision of Professor Margot Prior, I benefited from supports that are less accessible today. I was fortunate in other ways too – I held an applied science degree and could conduct my own laboratory work, sparing me the cost of hiring technical help,” Richdale says.
During her career Amanda worked as a technician, research assistant, and tutor at La Trobe, and post-PhD as an academic at RMIT and a research-only academic at the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre.
It was through supervising PhD students that Amanda saw how relatively small amounts of additional funding could have a significant impact on research outcomes.
“Whether it’s the purchase of new equipment, transcription of qualitative data, expert statistical advice, a new psychological test or app, or funding for a casual research assistant, these seemingly small additions can make a real difference,” she says. “At least two of my own PhD students would not have completed their research programs without external support.”
The Bill Richdale Senior PhD Research Grant honours the values of her late father Bill, whose curiosity and commitment to education inspired the establishment of the program.
“Both of my parents strongly valued education. They encouraged me to finish high school and pursue a degree – something not always expected of women in my generation, when careers for women were often limited to roles like secretary, nurse, or teacher. My father, a well-travelled man with a deep interest in people and cultures, never lost his curiosity.
Following his death, I wanted to give back in a way that reflected both his values and my own academic journey. The result is this small grant program to support PhD students researching autism and related conditions – a reflection of more than 30 years of my academic life and a tribute to a man who believed in the power of education.”
For Myfan, the funding represents an opportunity to ensure neurodivergent voices are not only included in research but are central to shaping its direction.
The Bill Richdale Sr PhD Research Grant is open to the School of Psychology and Public Health Students researching autism or a related condition, with at least one supervisor at The Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre contributing a minimum 30% supervision input.
Information about the 2027 round of this grant will be circulated from August.
