A/autisms:: a “queer labor of the incommensurate”: holding onto the friction between different orientations towards autism in an early childhood research-creation project

David Ben Shannon

doi:10.1080/09518398.2021.2003894

Abstract

In this paper, I propose “A/autisms” as an organizing concept for considering the complex intersection of Autistic identity, autistic disability, and the contingency of the diagnosis “autism” in educational research. I draw from Neuroqueer(ing) Noise—my doctoral research-creation project in an integrated, mainstream early childhood classroom—to consider how this intersection might help us orient towards A/autisms as artists, researchers, and teachers. Moreover, I suggest that A/autisms might be understood as a methodology for reorienting toward the human subject in the ontological turn. This paper is of relevance to researchers in the field of critical autism studies, as well as educational researchers interested in “post”-humanism, feminist materialisms, and arts-based research.

Highlights

A tension is evident in critical autism studies as to how to orient oneself as a researcher towards neurodivergence
I draw from Neuroqueer(ing) Noise—my doctoral research-creation project in an integrated, mainstream early childhood classroom—to consider how this intersection might help us orient towards A/autisms as artists, researchers, and teachers
This paper is of relevance to researchers in the field of critical autism studies, as well as educational researchers interested in “post”-humanism, feminist materialisms, and arts-based research

Summary

Introduction

A tension is evident in critical autism studies as to how to orient oneself as a researcher towards neurodivergence. Similar to how the “New Jim Code” activates and covertly reinforces racializing logics, the electrodermal gizmos activate and covertly reinforce neuro-ableist logics that frame A/autistic people as automaton-like, lacking agency, and akin to the technological This has implications for how autism is materialized in the research encounter. As I will explain, my doctoral in-school research project Neuroqueer(ing) Noise deploys electrodermal gizmos as a way to map against this doxa (and its materialization): the vignettes I explore refuse EDA’s bounded and biocentric understanding of the A/autistic body(mind), both as it relates to researching with EDA and the doxa that inform that research. This is not say that the children “experienced” what it’s like to be autistic or have sensory processing differences, but rather that our experiments complicated the pathology of those experiences

Conclusion

Findings

Notes on contributor