During my junior year at Princeton University, I researched the often Eurocentric history of autism diagnosis and visibility. As a possibly neurodivergent black woman myself, I am interested in diversifying the visibility of autism. For my senior thesis project, I want to understand the lived experiences of Black Autistic Women and raise awareness of their presence. I do not view autism as a deficit, but as a complex understanding of the world around us, contributing to the diversity of human thought.

I would like to spend time with leaders and individuals within your community to better understand the experiences of autistic adults, and in particular black autistic women. My partnership would involve consensual participant-observation within group activities and/or conversations. Participant-observation is an ethnographic research method that is centered around the researcher immersing themselves within a community, using unbiased observation to better understand a group of people. If some individuals are comfortable and able, I would also like to engage in conversation-style interviews.

Overall, my research goal is to understand and bring light on the racial and gender diversity of autism, while taking guidance from autistic individuals themselves.

The nature of anthropological methodology is designed for the participants to have as much agency in the study as possible. Though I will include my research questions, I would like to grant my participants the space to discuss whatever feels important to them.

– Tell me about yourself. What are your hobbies, interests, likes and dislikes?
– How did you come to realize you were autistic?
– How do you describe being autistic? A woman? A black person? The three together? Negative? Positive? Neutral?
– What was your experience with diagnosis like?
– At what age did the diagnostic process start vs end?
– How do you conceptualize or understand your autism?
– Do you find that autistic spaces are generally diverse?
– Do you feel like your race or gender impacted your experience with autism?
– Do you feel like your race or gender has impacted your experience with other autistic people’s understanding of you?

Name of Organization:
Princeton University Undergraduate Independent Research

For questions, please:
Call 201-466-2599

or email:  [email protected]

Study Link: