The book that I contributed to (here is a link to the publication page), as my first authorship, was published last month.
We received some really positive testimonials from experts across a number of fields on the blurb section on the back.
‘This must-read research-based text represents a step-change in our understanding of neurodiversity; challenging old assumptions, generating new knowledge and understandings of importance to us all. Written by editors and authors who really know what they are talking about, and organised around five key themes, it builds on critical race theory, feminist and queer studies, connects with disability and Mad Studies, to explore a new and important field – Neurodiversity Studies.’
– Peter Beresford is Professor of Citizen Participation at the University of Essex and Co-Chair of Shaping Our Lives, the national user led organisation.
“The increasing recognition that there is no ‘normal’ brain type against which all others must be judged pathological is having a transformative effect on every aspect of society: on employment, education, research, public policy, and how we conceive of the minds of other people. This book makes an important contribution to the evolving scholarly discourse around neurodiversity by centering the voices and experiences of neurodivergent people.”
– Steve Silberman, author of the prize-winning NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity (Avery Publishing)
‘There is SO MUCH here. (The essays by Alyssa Hillary and Matthew Belmonte alone are worth the cost of the book.) Neurodiversity advances, less like an army than like an ecosystem after a fire. Growth and renewal beyond measure.’
–Ralph James Savarese, Professor of English, Grinnell College and author of See It Feelingly: Classic Novels, Autistic Readers, and the Schooling of a No-Good English Professor (Duke University Press)
— ‘Neurodiversity Studies: A New Critical Paradigm is interesting, enjoyable and thought provoking, and I think its theoretical discourse and positions have clear constructive practical implications which really matter.’
– Dr Dinah Murray, autism researcher and campaigner productiveirritant.
‘Neurodiversity Studies: A New Critical Paradigm provides a deep-dive into the complex world of autism and the neurologically different. Ranging through the humanities, social sciences, philosophy, ethics, and communication studies, among other areas, the book breaks new ground in the academic study of the inner worlds and sensoria of a significant portion of the population too often ignored politically while over-treated medically.’
– Professor Lennard J. Davis, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Arts and Sciences, and also Professor of Disability and Human Development in the School of Applied Health Sciences and Professor of Medical Education in the University of Illinois College of Medicine.
I am incredibly excited to be included in this collection of papers on Critical Autism Studies and found the experience of co-writing with my follow authors so rewarding. As a first foray into the development of data through an collective-autoethnographic methodology, the experience of using the self and one’s own experiences as the basis of research is challenging, as too was the process of finding a shared meaning in the interpretation of the data, a process we touch upon in the chapter.
If you have an opportunity to read any of the collection or my chapter please drop me a line to comment or offer your own thoughts via my contacts page.