Neurodiversity, networks, and narratives: Exploring intimacy and expressive freedom in the time of COVID‐19

• Betts, Kerri ^[1] ; Creechan, Louise ^[10] ; Cawkwell, Rosemarie ^[11] ; Finn‐Kelcey, Isabelle ^[2] ; Griffin, C. J. ^[3] ; Hagopian, Alice ^[4] ; Hartley, David ^[5] ; Manalili, Marie Adrienne R. ^[6] ; Murkumbi, Inika ^[7] ; O’Donoghue, Sarinah ^[7] ; Shanahan, Cassandra ^[8] ; Stenning, Anna ^[1] ; Zisk, Alyssa Hillary ^[9]
  1. [1] University of Leeds

     University of Leeds

     Reino Unido

     
  2. [2] University of Winchester

     University of Winchester

     Winchester District, Reino Unido

     
  3. [3] University of Warwick

     University of Warwick

     Reino Unido

     
  4. [4] University of St Andrews

     University of St Andrews

     Reino Unido

     
  5. [5] University of Manchester

     University of Manchester

     Reino Unido

     
  6. [6] University College London

     University College London

     Reino Unido

     
  7. [7] University of Cambridge

     University of Cambridge

     Cambridge District, Reino Unido

     
  8. [8] Macquarie University

     Macquarie University

     Australia

     
  9. [9] University of Rhode Island

     University of Rhode Island

     Town of South Kingstown, Estados Unidos

     
  10. [10] Department of English Studies, Durham University, UK / Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University, UK
  11. [11] Independent Researcher, UK

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• Localización: Social Inclusion, ISSN-e 2183-2803, Vol. 11, Nº. 1, 1, 2023 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Disability and Social Inclusion: Lessons From the Pandemic), págs. 60-71
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5737
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  • The Narratives of Neurodiversity Network (NNN) is a neurodivergent academic, creative, and educator collective that came together with allies during the Covid‐19 pandemic to create a network centred around emerging narratives about neuro-diversity and exploring new ways of learning and socialising. The network focuses on exploring the roles of written, spoken, and visual narratives across cultural locations about neuro‐atypical experiences in generating improved agency and self‐advocacy for those who have been subject to pathologization through neuro‐normativity and intersecting oppression. During the last year, widening access to digital platforms has provided a space to explore these issues outside of traditional academic spaces. We run a monthly “Salon,” our mixed‐media “reading, listening, and watching” group, in an effort to find positive representation within contemporary culture. Discussions have moved beyond mimesis and into a consideration of how narrative and storyworlds can question the supposed naturalness of certain ways of being in and perceiving the world. This article interrogates the network’s core principles of nonhierarchical co‐production, including the roles of creativity, community, identity, and emancipatory research which were animated by the new techno‐social context. We consider the cultural lives of neurodiversity in the West and beyond, including ethical and aesthetic dimensions. We share a faith in the power of storytelling to inform new social identities for neurodivergent people and to inform scientific understandings of atypical cognition. In exploring this, we speak through a porous first‐person plural narrator, to unsettle the idea that there is a hegemonic “we” speaking on behalf of all neurodivergent people.