Common models of autism advocacy with global reach present the only possible good future as being through the early detection, intervention, and eventual cure of autism—a future in which autism, and therefore, autistic people, no longer exist. This ableist violence makes autistic lives paradoxical, given that autism is presented as incompatible with life itself. How then, might anthropology envision autistic lives? Taking anthropology as a project of making more possible futures, this project uses multimodal and craft-based research to examine how autistic people create meaning around things that matter to them.
This research draws on a series of life history interviews conducted with autistic activists in the U.S. focused on their interests and passions. Colloquially known as ‘special interests’, these interests challenge ableist stereotypes about what it means to be autistic. Crucially, this project was informed by the autistic researcher’s own special interest of knitting, making special interests both the object and method of inquiry. Each interview incorporated an element of collaborative knitting pattern design, featuring each participant’s interests, which was then knitted by the researcher and gifted to the participant in an act of reciprocity and community building. The final knitted objects from this project materialize knowledge about how autistic people navigate the world and show how creative ethnographic methods can support autistic activism against epistemic injustice.
While anthropologists studying autism have sought to unsettle deficit-based models by arguing that autistic people meaningfully engage in daily activities, what counts as meaningful is often determined by neurotypical norms. Through using knitting as a multimodal technique for a disability anthropology of neurodivergence, this project challenges what is taken as meaningful knowledge and who can create it. Knitting provides a conceptual and methodological approach that extends anthropological understandings of neurodiversity, ableism, the life course, and possible futures for humanity.
