Contributors

Diana R. Paulin

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.

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