Neuroqueer Misfits: Interactions Between Teenage Autistic Girls and Their Male Classmates in High School

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Eight
  In Roundtable Session: (Re)Conceptualizing Education Grounded in Student Experiences and Perspectives (Table 11)

Abstract

This paper explores interview data with 3 autistic teenage girls and their perspectives of interactions with autistic and non-autistic boys at school. The feminist disability studies concept of misfit is applied (Garland-Thomson, 2011) to situate the temporal-spatial embodiment of female autistic students’ bodyminds in school spaces (Price, 2015; Garland-Thomson, 2011). Neuroqueering (Walker, 2021) attends to the neuro- and heteronormative position of these autistic students in schools and structures of power. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis research method is applied to this study. Discussion includes theoretical analysis of proactive and reactive neuroqueering. Implications for teachers and educational researchers include understanding the impact of intersectional misfitting and neuroqueering for autistic girls.

Author

• Marisa Kofke, SUNY - College at Brockport
  Presenting Author