Fw: Representing Autism: Writing, Cognition, Disability

[Guest guest]

>

>Representing Autism: Writing, Cognition, Disability

>A conference hosted by the SCE (Society for Critical Exchange)

>

>Disability Studies has largely overlooked the culture and discourses of

>cognitive disabilities. Nonetheless, one

>cognitive disorder has begun to receive a great deal of attention both in

>the academy and in the popular media:

>

>Autism. The success of fictional works (e.g., Mark Haddon's The Curious

>Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)

>and nonfictional books and films by and about Autism/Asperger's people has

>fueled this attention.

>

>But though a number of educational, clinical and medical approaches to

>Autism Spectrum Disorders have emerged

>and yielded a large body of publications, the fascinating and potentially

>fruitful relationships between Autism/

>Asperger's and the humanities have barely been explored.

>With the recent dramatic rise in diagnoses of Autism, it is particularly

>urgent that we undertake such an

>exploration.

>This conference, therefore, aims to bring together scholars in the

>humanities and the cognitive sciences in order to

>shed new light on the nature and forms of autistic representation and to

>trace the lines of connection and

>demarcation between Autism/ Asperger's writing and thinking and that of

>more typical human beings.

>

>We seek proposals for papers, panels, and workshops that discuss the

>relationships between Autism Spectrum

>Disorders and representation. How is Autism/Asperger's depicted in

>literary works, on film and television, in

>clinical discourses, in legal documents and other textual sources?

>What novel forms does autistic creativity assume? How does autistic

>representation--whether by or merely about

>autists--enable us to reconsider " normal " modes of representation? What do

>these representations reveal about the

>nature of human cognition, ability and sociability?

>

>Topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:

>

>Autism as Text

>Autistic Cultures

>Filming Autism

>Writing Autistically

>Autism and TV

>Autism and Autobiography/biography

>Autism and the Law

>The Politics of Autism/Asperger's

>Autism in History/Histories of Autism

>Writing for Autists

>Children's Literature and Autism

>Hyperlexia

>Autism and Alternate Textualities (e.g., graphic arts, assistive

>technologies, etc.) Fictions of Autism Stereotypes and Stereotypies The

>Poetry of Autism/Autism as Poetry

>Autistic Speech vs. Autistic Writing

>Autism and Deconstruction/Deconstructing Autism Criticism and

>Autism/Autistic Critics

>

>Please send paper abstracts, panel and workshop proposals, (no full papers

>please!) as well as a CV no more than

>two pages by June 15, 2005 to Mark Osteen. mosteen[at]loyola.edu

>Department of English Loyola College in

>land 4501 N. St. Baltimore, MD 21210

________________________________

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