ission Statement

This site is a dynamic and collaborate space that archives both historic and contemporary representations of Black Autism/Autistic Blackness. Its goal is to provide a digital platform to explore and critique representations, as well as house creative interventions and resources that destigmatize and support people who identify as Black and Autistic, as well as those who serve as allies, such as family members, educators, scholars, advocates, and artists.

Diana Paulin

My name is Diana R. Paulin. This autistic blackness project is a dynamic work in progress. My commitment to it has developed in conjunction with my multiple-positionality as a blackademic, mother, daughter, sister, caregiver, autism advocate and ally; I am Associate Professor of American Studies and English, and affiliate faculty in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Trinity College, Hartford. It is my desire to work collaboratively with individuals and communities committed to creating anti-ableist spaces for black neurodiversity and neurodivergence, as well as those whose identities and experiences intersect with those who occupy these fluid and often contested categories, such as black queer autists and their families. Archival work for this project draws from historical and contemporary sites in a variety of mediums. In some ways, it produces more questions than answers but my goal is to provide diverse materials that lend to ongoing research, dialogue, and interrogation of current policies and popular representations that impact and shape black autistic ways of being in the world–an interactive space for creativity and exploration, as well as a repository for the voices, their/his/hertories, narratives, that have been overlooked, misread, misunderstood and marginalized.

Locating Black Autism houses a dynamic archive of stories and representations by and about Black Autists. This site carves out space for Black Autists, educators, researchers, family members, caregivers, and allies to intervene in ableism, reductive representations, and pathologizing erasures of Black neurodivergent lives and experiences. Informed by creativity, courage, and radical love, this site serves as a repository for recovering the diverse lives, perspectives and contributions of Black Autists.

---

---