The Absent-Minded Professor
A Memoir of Cognitive Decline,
Invisible Disability, and Academic Life
When I first noticed subtle changes in memory and concentration at the age of forty-six, I assumed the explanation would eventually become clear.
It didn’t.
For years I struggled to understand what was happening while trying to continue teaching, researching, and living the life I had worked so hard to build. As the changes progressed, they affected not only my work but also my confidence, identity, and relationships.
As a researcher, I responded the only way I knew how—I began investigating my own experience. What started as a search for answers eventually became an effort to understand why so many people with invisible cognitive disabilities struggle to be recognized, even by the systems designed to help them.
The Absent-Minded Professor tells that story.
Rather than offering a recovery narrative, it explores the realities of living through cognitive decline while attempting to preserve a career, a marriage, and a sense of self.
I wrote The Absent-Minded Professor because it was the book I needed when I first began searching for answers.
You can read more about that journey in my Field Notes.
