4. Neurodivergent Worlds: Urban Space, Environmental Harm, and Species Relations
Hybrid
Meeting ID: 961 7308 4309
Passcode: 522837
Panellists: Miriam Serini, Aathira A. S, Ombre Tarragnat, Laura Restrepo Giraldo
Chair: Chunye Chai
Miriam Serini | Deconstructing neurotypicality in social research: an example of creative practices in neurodivergence research
Abstract: In this paper I present some examples of creative methods used in a research I am conducting in the city of Bologna (Italy) on the spatialisation of neuronormativity in urban space. Part of the research focuses on the ways in which neurodivergent people inhabit and traverse space in order to investigate possible processes of marginalisation, but also practices of resistance and claiming of public space.
Building on Kenna's reflections (2022, 2023), when conducting research with neurodivergent participants we should consider the neurotypicality of research methods and reframe research and data collection through the lens of neurodiversity. This could be done, for example, by considering alternative modes of communication beyond the standardised and common ones we use in social research. I believe that the use of participatory and also creative research techniques could promote inclusion in research processes and remove the formality of face-to-face interviews, taking into consideration possible differences in social communication.
In this paper, I present examples of visual creative methods (e.g. digital storytelling, participatory video, video diary): through the production of digital artefacts, I have tried to get participants to focus on their experiences of everyday urban life. Another modality I proposed to the participants was that of using techniques that involve the body and its performativity (e.g. itinerant interview). Indeed, walking can be conceived as a corporeal experience: walking in a non-conforming bodymind, crossing spaces designed for other uses and for other bodies, it is possible to highlight what is often taken for granted and to reflect on the relationship between body and space (Giorgi, Pizzolati & Vacchelli 2021).
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Aathira A. S. (Online) | Neurodivergence as Environmental Injustice: An Anthropological Study on The Endosulfan Tragedy and the Politics of Bodily Harm through the Narratives of Ambika Suthan Mangad
Abstract: The intersection of environmental violence and neurodivergence is a critical area of study, particularly in contexts where systemic negligence and toxic exposure have led to profound bodily and neurological harm. The study examines the impact of environmental injustices, such as the indiscriminate use of pesticides like Endosulfan, disrupt neurological development and result in neurodivergent conditions within affected communities through the narratives written by Ambika Suthan Mangad namely, Swarga (2017), Enmakaje Enna Gramathilek (2009), Endosulfan: Nilavilikal Avasanikkunnilla (2020) with cross references to the ideas of environmental injustice and bodily politics as enumerated by the theorists, Robert Bullard, Dorceta Taylor, Giovanna Di Chiro in their works. Moving beyond pathologizing frameworks, neurodivergence is situated within the broader context of environmental violence, emphasizing ecological harm on marginalized populations. By integrating perspectives from environmental justice, critical disability studies, and the neurodiversity paradigm, the study highlights the systemic roots of neurodivergence as a form of embodied injustice. Through an analysis of the Endosulfan tragedy and its transgenerational impacts, the paper argues for a reimagining of neurodivergence as a collective consequence of environmental exploitation and systemic neglect.
The Endosulfan tragedy underscores how environmental violence—such as the indiscriminate use of toxic chemicals—can disrupt neurological development, leading to neurodivergent conditions. While neurodiversity celebrates the natural variations of the human brain, it is crucial to recognize that in cases like this, neurodivergence emerges not as a random variation but as a direct consequence of systemic environmental harm. The paper shifts the focus from pathologizing individuals to holding the systems and practices that perpetuate such harm, accountable. It invites a deeper understanding of the connection between environmental injustices and its effect on marginalized communities, shaping their neurological and bodily realities in ways that are often ignored or stigmatized.
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Ombre Tarragnat | A Tale of Two CASes: Critical Autism Studies Meets Critical Animal Studies
Abstract: This paper investigates the intersection between critical autism studies and critical animal studies by focusing on the relationship between autistics and animals in autism science and neurodiversity studies.
By developing animal models, autism science investigates the ‘risk factors’ of autism. Despite critique from the autistic community, which calls for a shift away from aetiological research, autism science remains rooted in the pathology paradigm. It not only dehumanises autistics by framing autism as a disorder, but it also animalises (or, as I suggest, bestialises) its model animals by reducing their lived experience to bio-behavioural processes. Examining the co-construction of autism and animality in autism science, I interrogate the paradox whereby rodents are deemed similar enough to humans to model autism yet excluded from the category of autism itself.
In neurodiversity studies, nonhuman animals tend to be reduced to their role of emotional support or guides towards a better understanding of human sociality. Despite growing evidence of nonhuman neurodivergence, nonhuman animals are often rejected from the concept of neurodiversity. With its neurocentrism, neurodiversity studies also relies on rhetorics which mechanise and bestialise neurodivergence. Instead, I call for a more-than-human and more-than-neurological turn in neurodiversity studies.
While recognising the problematic nature of dehumanisation, I reject the reactive gesture of reclaiming typical humanity for neurodivergent humans. Beyond the idea of transspecies (neuro)kinship, which extends care to nonhuman animals only insofar as they share our neurotype, I imagine new forms of allyship and kinship between neurodivergent humans and nonhuman animals. While the model animals might not actually be turned autistic by the experiments, they experience altered forms of life which I call ethodivergences. I suggest this imposition by scientists is rooted in the pathology paradigm and speciesism at once. Subverting the forced pairing of neurodivergent humans and nonhuman animals, I develop an ethical framework based on the rejection of ethonormativity.
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Laura Restrepo Giraldo | Autistic Latin American Experiences: A Colombian Phenomenology of Autism
Abstract: Autistic Latin American experiences seem to occupy a marginal position in neurodivergent studies. Theoretical efforts to understand the autistic experience are mostly focused on Europe and North America, however, how is the experience of neurodivergent subjects in the Latin American context? What are the differences and similarities with respect to the global north? This paper addresses, from an intersectional perspective, a Colombian phenomenology of autism. This phenomenology starts, in the first place, from a critical analysis of the spatial configuration of the city of Medellin, as well as its effects on autistic subjectivity. The intensification of sensorial charges (especially sound) produces what I call a spatiality of stunnedness and, consequently, of autistic shutdown. Second, I examine certain cultural practices of the city –specifically, the tropical culture of dance and partying– as devices of radical exclusion of non-neurotypical ways of life. Ultimately, I expose how the social stigmatization of neurodivergence, as well as the precarious access to health services and diagnostic possibilities lead to practices of violence and ultimately to the reinforcement of masking amongst autistic individuals.
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Speaker Bios:
Miriam Serini: I am Miriam Serini, I have a Master's degree in Sociology and I am currently a second-year PhD student in Urban Studies at the University of Milan Bicocca (Italy). My research interests mainly focus on public policy studies, critical disability studies and crip studies. My research project concerns the spatialisation of neuronormativity in urban space, with a focus on both public policies and the ways in which neurodivergent people inhabit and traverse public space.
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Aathira A. S: Dr. Aathira A. S. is a dedicated educator and researcher specialized in Medical Humanities and Body Studies in Literature who is currently working as an Assistant Professor of English in SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur. With a Ph.D. from SRM Institute of Science and Technology, her career spans roles as an Assistant Professor and she possesses academic experience from several institutions. Her academic interests are reflected in her extensive research on topics like skin and literature, eco-precarity, and vulnerability studies, which she has presented at international conferences held at reputed universities such as, University of London and Cambridge University, and published in esteemed journals.
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Ombre Tarragnat: Ombre Tarragnat is a PhD student in gender studies and philosophy at Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis, affiliated with the Laboratoire d’Études de Genre et de Sexualité. Their doctoral research, provisionally entitled ‘Autism as Ethodivergence: Philosophical Ethology, Posthumanism, Phenomenology’, investigates the intersection of neurodiversity and animality. Ombre’s research has been published (or is forthcoming) in journals such as Biosemiotics, Minority Reports: Cultural Disability Studies, Trace: Journal of Human-Animal Studies, or Humana.Mente: Journal of Philosophical Studies, and two forthcoming anthologies: Neuroqueer Theory and Practice (ed. Nick Walker) and Théories féministes (ed. Camille Froidevaux-Metterie). See more at www.ombretarragnat.com.
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Laura Restrepo-Giraldo: Laura Restrepo-Giraldo is a student in the contemporary philosophy master’s program at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris, France. She is a historian graduated from the National University of Colombia, Medellin, where she was a researcher in the group Modern Narratives and Critique of the Present of the Faculty of Humanities and Economics. Her main focus of work is the theory and philosophy of history; the philosophy of animality and the critique of modernity. She is currently working on a thesis directed by the philosopher Judith Revel on the philosophical problematization of history in the work of Donna Haraway. Finally, she is a passionate member of the reading group Animal Studies coordinated by La Quinta Pata, an activist and animalist group that fights for animal rights in Colombia.
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