Cognitive scaffolds, not caves: neurodivergent scholarship and generative AI in the accelerated academy

This article explores how generative AI, particularly ChatGPT, mediates the scholarly practice of a neurodivergent early-career academic in the Global South. Employing reflexive thematic analysis and autoethnographic reflection, it identifies four interwoven themes—dialogic subjectivity, emotionally situated inquiry, adaptive reappropriation, and nonlinear praxis—that reveal how generative AI can scaffold neurodivergent cognition and affective labor. Rather than viewing AI as a simple productivity tool or a threat to academic integrity, the article argues that its use is situated, ambivalent, and sometimes reparative. It positions AI as a potential scaffold for cognitive justice and epistemic inclusion, particularly when reappropriated by disabled and neurodivergent scholars. However, it also acknowledges the ethical tensions and infrastructural inequities that accompany this use. By centering lived experience and cognitive diversity, the article contributes to broader debates about AI, disability, and scholarly life in accelerated academic contexts.