From Neurodiverse to Neuroqueer: Politics of Autism

• In Event: 158 - Section on Disability and Society Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03.

Abstract

Abstract: Diversity rhetoric is being adopted by disability activists, particularly the concept of neurodiversity among autistic activists. This language is problematic in many ways: 1. It has not been successful for other social movements, particularly those around race; 2. It does not challenge the structures of power that produce the hierarchies between ‘disabled’ and ‘not;’ 3. It does not have traction among the autistic adults I worked with in my field work. Many accepted the premise of neurodiversity, but it did not activate a sense of identity politics that those who do advocate for neurodiversity hope to achieve. Finally, I offer an alternative to neurodiversity identity politics as a mode of creating a politics of autism, one that centers around queer theory and understanding of neurology as performative, emergent, and social.

Author

• Kate Jenkins, City University of New York-Graduate Center