Michelle Espinosa
Uncanny Valley Girl: almost just like you.
Altadena, California, United States
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Michelle Espinosa brings a distinctive voice shaped by her Mexican and Midwest heritage and neurodivergence. Her first film, Silence, screened for three years at Los Angeles Director’s Guild Theater, Los Feliz Theater, L.A. Film Forum, Laemmle’s Royal, and at the Foundation for Art Resources Benefit.
An AFI Directing Fellow with a Master of Science, Michelle was described as a “gifted, original talent” and featured at an AFI Lifetime Achievement red carpet event on CBS. Her 16MM short, Pinfeathers, received critical acclaim from the New York Times and Scarecrow Video, won at the Chicago International Film Festival, and decades later was selected to represent AFI’s catalog of shorts.
Michelle believes that being a volunteer is the practice of employing one's compassion for a higher purpose. Ms. Espinosa spent three days a month in prisons for fifteen years facilitating the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) for incarcerated men. AVP is a process by which incarcerated men and women and community members learn communication, coping skills, and deeper self-awareness as alternatives to violence. For three years, Michelle was a volunteer responder and on-call manager for the Los Angeles City Mayor's Crisis Response Team. CRT is called to the scene of fatalities or multi-casualty incidents by L.A. Fire and Police Departments–to assist witnesses and families–until the Coroner leaves. While a practicing mediator and facilitator with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office for twenty years, Michelle was invited to coach students at U.C.L.A. Law School and peer-to-peer mediators in L.A. middle schools. Michelle was recommended by Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, for the President's Volunteer Service Award and Bronze medal, which was awarded to her by President Barack Obama.
In addition to holding a master's in directing from AFI, Michelle holds a Bachelor of Science in digital filmmaking from the Los Angeles Film School.
Currently, Michelle is finishing her master's and working on her doctorate in Sustainability Education at Prescott College, the first PhD of its kind in the United States.
Area of Expertise
Filling in the corpus: how neurodivergence phases-in the actual world
Michelle Espinosa, an autistic researcher and filmmaker, applies a critical, neurodivergent perspective to consciousness and autism studies through both scholarship and pedagogy. Her original Filling in the Corpus paper employs autoethnography, critical discourse analysis, and comparative interpretive methods to examine dominant framings of autism. It reveals how ableist language and normative assumptions in research pathologize difference, while recognizing neurodivergent consciousness as an equally valid form of awareness enriches theoretical models. Core concepts include the mirror neuron system, predictive processing, and simulation across neurotypes, challenging the “broken mirror” model and advocating for epistemic justice, methodological pluralism, and first-person phenomenology.
Building on these insights, Espinosa developed an 8-week augmented reality (AR) educational course that transforms her research into an experiential learning environment. The course allows participants to explore consciousness, neurodivergence, and epistemic justice through immersive, interactive modules that illustrate alternative architectures of awareness. By bridging first-person experience with evidence-based theory, the AR course makes abstract concepts tangible, fostering understanding and empathy among learners of diverse backgrounds and expertise.
Together, these works advance both scholarship and pedagogy: the original paper challenges entrenched assumptions in consciousness research, while the AR course translates these insights into an innovative, accessible educational model. Both projects emphasize inclusion, pluralistic methodologies, and critical reflection, offering attendees a unique opportunity to engage with neurodivergent perspectives in theory and practice. Espinosa’s approach demonstrates how research-informed pedagogy, enhanced by technology, can meaningfully expand understanding of consciousness and autism while modeling inclusive, experiential learning for scholars and practitioners alike.
Michelle Espinosa
Uncanny Valley Girl: almost just like you.
Altadena, California, United States
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