About – Locating Black Autism

Mission 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

A photo of Diana and her daughter, Micaela, a black woman autist, at a community center called the Autism Project

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.

Other Site Contributors

Jen White-Johnson

Afro-Latina Mother and Son standing next to each other. Mom is wearing her favorite black leather jacket. She has a top-knot and streaks of blond through her dark hair. She is wearing blue jeans with the knees frayed. She is also wearing her favorite black high top sneakers. She is smiling at her son. Her son is wearing a red puffer vest with a rainbow long sleeve shirt. He has an afro and is wearing blue headphones, he also wearing blue jeans and red sneakers.

Jen White-Johnson’s artwork is featured on this website. Johnson’s art explores the erasure of black disabled children in digital and literary media. The visuals she makes using photo and design are her own reflections that amplify conversations with the Disability community and ignite the continued need to develop anti-racist, anti-ableist media.

Johnson’s definition of Mothering as an act of Resistance means to redesign ableist visual culture. The sole intention is to empower and activate change encouraging communities to engage in conversations about acceptance, rooted in how Black Neurodivergent children are valued and seen.

Cristina Dimova

My name is Cristina Dimova and I am researching past narratives, archives, and documents found in both mental health and marginalized communities. I am an undergraduate student at Trinity College and I am double majoring in Psychology and Anthropology. On this webpage, I will be recognizing Black autists that are located throughout time, specifically from the 1700s to present time. Amongst the PHC research program founded at Trinity, archival on the topic of Black Autism was able to be done and allowed me, Isabelle, and Gywn to conduct further research in this particular realm. Hope you enjoy all the content provided on this webpage!

Gwyn Gutheil

My name is Gwyn Gutheil and I’m a junior at Trinity College double majoring in English and Human Rights Studies. I began working on this project when I took Professor Paulin’s Autistic Blackness class in the spring of my sophomore year. I originally researched information specifically about listening to Black autistic women and girls, and as a summer research assistant I focused on the historical rhetoric that has existed around Black mental health.

Isabelle Duval

My name is Isabelle Duval and I am an English major in my third year at Trinity College. Over the summer of 2021 I will be working with the Public Humanities Collaboration (PHC) research project revolving around Black Autism/Autistic Blackness, where we will be looking for cases of autism in the Black community before the disability became an official diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). I specifically research and locate instances of autism and sterilization between the Post-Reconstruction era and the Civil Rights Era.