Dr Martine van Driel works on the intersection of linguistics and autism, investigating authentic autistic communication from a neurodiverse and linguistic perspective. She worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Autistic Adults Online project which investigated how autistic adults use social media platforms to connect and build relationships and communities. More recently, she is collaborating with colleagues at Queen Mary, University of London investigating Autism in Affinity Spaces.

She also has extensive teaching experience working previously as a PGTA and a Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham across undergraduate, postgraduate and distance programmes. Martine received her PGCHE from the University of Birmingham in 2020 and has since become a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy through the Beacon Scheme.

Autism, autistic communication, neurodiversity, neurodivergent communication, social media, digital communities, discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, digital ethnography