Embodying Divergence: New Directions in Autism and Neurodiversity Research

At the heart of our connection to others lies our body. Inconspicuous, animated, expressive, “the human body is the best picture of the human soul”, Ludwig Wittgenstein once remarked. Over the last two decades, following a growing academic interest in the lived, experiencing body, autism researchers are increasingly turning their attention to questions of autistic embodiment.

Guided by the rise of the neurodiversity movement, earlier assumptions of autistic subjectivity as deficiency are being replaced by recognition of autism as embodied divergence. For autism researchers, this increasingly means placing autistic experiences at the epistemic center, and directing much-needed critical light towards broader, political issues of socio-corporeal intersubjectivity as well as their frequent companions: discrimination and injustice.

Working on both foundational and contemporary issues connected to the overarching theme, the conference will bring together international autism and neurodiversity scholars, with talks on trauma and autistic joy, online sociality, decolonization, masking and gender, predictive processing, perceptual styles, as well as historical and contemporary crises that have shaped autism research.

The conference is hosted by the Phenomenology of Autism Research Network (PARN). The network is a collaboration between researchers from Aarhus University, University of Copenhagen, Macquarie University and the University of Exeter.

We are committed to making this conference an autism-inclusive space both in terms of academic orientation but also practical organization. We urge both speakers and audience to be mindful of the normative dimension of language and concepts used to describe autism when engaging in discussions. Moreover, we aim to create an environment where autistic scholars and participants can engage in discussions without unnecessary barriers.