Marianthi Kourti
I am a PhD student at the University of Birmingham exploring the gender experiences of autistic individuals. I also work as a Postgraduate Teaching assistant in the Undergraduate Education program at the University of Birmingham. My research interests are: Critical Autism Studies, Critical Disability Studies, Gender and Sexuality, Feminism and Critical Realism.
Supervisors: Dr. Andrea MacLeod and Dr. Nicki Ward
Supervisors: Dr. Andrea MacLeod and Dr. Nicki Ward
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First of all, being an autistic autism professional comes with significant emotional labour. Employers often don’t seem ready or able to recognise the needs of an autistic employee, even if they provide extensive training for working with autistic service users. Presenting the autistic individual as only being the one in need ignores the needs of an autistic professional. Autistic professionals are faced with dealing with the ableist views of their non-autistic co-workers and the responsibility to address them. They are often treated in a tokenistic way by their organisation, a position which is very difficult to challenge for many reasons.
As members of the autistic community, autistic professionals are faced with the challenges autistic individuals face during and after work. They may have friends and loved ones who are frequently in crisis and face many barriers and, once in a position of a relative power, they feel a burden of responsibility for creating visibility and employment opportunities for their community, whose foundations as a community have been created by many hours of unpaid labour by many of its members. Simultaneously, they have to keep challenging institutions and organisations who may employ them about their inaccessibility to the autistic community as a whole.
Finally, autistic autism professionals deal with others’ internalised ableism, whilst constantly facing and challenging the damaging mainstream autism discourse and managing the nuances of stigmatisation. For all the above reasons, I think it’s important to talk about the contested identity of the autistic autism professional in a meaningful, intersectional way.
This presentation took place at the study weekend organised by the Autism Centre of Education and Research in the School of Education, University of Birmingham in March 2017.
This presentation took place at the study weekend organised by the Autism Centre of Education and Research in the School of Education, University of Birmingham in April 2016.
This presentation took place at the study weekend organised by the Autism Centre of Education and Research in the School of Education, University of Birmingham in April 2015.
This talk was presented in a Research In Progress (RIPS) seminar at the school of Education, University of Birmingham in June 2016.
This presentation took place at a meeting of the Specialist Women with Autism Professionals' network which is based in the West Midlands in November 2016.
Conference presentations
On the other hand, autistic people and spaces seem to approach gender differently. In my own research, which was conducted on autistic individuals raised as girls, the participants stated that they don’t identify with the typical presentation of the female gender, with many of them identifying themselves as bigender, agender, genderqueer etc. Similarly, in autistic organised spaces, such as Autscape, gender identity is not essentialised on taken for granted, rather individuals are encouraged to declare which gender they identify with.
Autism studies also lack interdisciplinarity, with the majority of research funded focusing on children and educational interventions as well as a quest to understand the biology of autism. Research in adults is considerably disproportionate and there seems to be minimal focus on how to help autistic people develop a strong sense of self and identity. Autistic people are constantly, directly and indirectly, asked to change, control or hide key parts of their identity and living in a world where they are deprived of the human right for self-determination, they are short of words and discourses that truly represent them.
This is also affecting how autistic people relate and understand their gender identity. Having an impaired self-awareness because living in an unaccommodating, non-autistic world as well as being unable to see oneself to common gendered discourses and experiences may lead to autistic people being unable to express their gender identity. Consequently, multidisciplinary and intersectional discussion on autistic gender are vitally important in order to help autistic individuals understand and express their gender identity.
Papers
First of all, being an autistic autism professional comes with significant emotional labour. Employers often don’t seem ready or able to recognise the needs of an autistic employee, even if they provide extensive training for working with autistic service users. Presenting the autistic individual as only being the one in need ignores the needs of an autistic professional. Autistic professionals are faced with dealing with the ableist views of their non-autistic co-workers and the responsibility to address them. They are often treated in a tokenistic way by their organisation, a position which is very difficult to challenge for many reasons.
As members of the autistic community, autistic professionals are faced with the challenges autistic individuals face during and after work. They may have friends and loved ones who are frequently in crisis and face many barriers and, once in a position of a relative power, they feel a burden of responsibility for creating visibility and employment opportunities for their community, whose foundations as a community have been created by many hours of unpaid labour by many of its members. Simultaneously, they have to keep challenging institutions and organisations who may employ them about their inaccessibility to the autistic community as a whole.
Finally, autistic autism professionals deal with others’ internalised ableism, whilst constantly facing and challenging the damaging mainstream autism discourse and managing the nuances of stigmatisation. For all the above reasons, I think it’s important to talk about the contested identity of the autistic autism professional in a meaningful, intersectional way.
This presentation took place at the study weekend organised by the Autism Centre of Education and Research in the School of Education, University of Birmingham in March 2017.
This presentation took place at the study weekend organised by the Autism Centre of Education and Research in the School of Education, University of Birmingham in April 2016.
This presentation took place at the study weekend organised by the Autism Centre of Education and Research in the School of Education, University of Birmingham in April 2015.
This talk was presented in a Research In Progress (RIPS) seminar at the school of Education, University of Birmingham in June 2016.
This presentation took place at a meeting of the Specialist Women with Autism Professionals' network which is based in the West Midlands in November 2016.
On the other hand, autistic people and spaces seem to approach gender differently. In my own research, which was conducted on autistic individuals raised as girls, the participants stated that they don’t identify with the typical presentation of the female gender, with many of them identifying themselves as bigender, agender, genderqueer etc. Similarly, in autistic organised spaces, such as Autscape, gender identity is not essentialised on taken for granted, rather individuals are encouraged to declare which gender they identify with.
Autism studies also lack interdisciplinarity, with the majority of research funded focusing on children and educational interventions as well as a quest to understand the biology of autism. Research in adults is considerably disproportionate and there seems to be minimal focus on how to help autistic people develop a strong sense of self and identity. Autistic people are constantly, directly and indirectly, asked to change, control or hide key parts of their identity and living in a world where they are deprived of the human right for self-determination, they are short of words and discourses that truly represent them.
This is also affecting how autistic people relate and understand their gender identity. Having an impaired self-awareness because living in an unaccommodating, non-autistic world as well as being unable to see oneself to common gendered discourses and experiences may lead to autistic people being unable to express their gender identity. Consequently, multidisciplinary and intersectional discussion on autistic gender are vitally important in order to help autistic individuals understand and express their gender identity.