Unmothering Autism

Unmothering Autism rethinks autism and mothering to reveal what it means for us to live well together in, and through, difference.

Patty Douglas is an associate professor of disability studies, the inaugural chair in student success and wellness, and director of the Centre for Community Engagement and Social Change in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University. She leads Re•Storying Autism (www.restoryingautism.com), a multimedia storytelling project located in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Aotearoa (New Zealand), and is a sought-after international speaker. She is also a senior research affiliate at the Re•Vision Centre for Art and Social Justice at the University of Guelph. Patty identifies as neurodivergent and invisibly disabled and is the mother of two neurodivergent sons, one of whom identifies as autistic.

Patty Douglas’s book fundamentally challenges the dominant narrative about mothering an autistic child found in both the popular media and caretaker autobiographies, and replaces it with a more nuanced understanding of how mothers contest both traditional role expectations and disabling views of autism.

Majia Nadesan, professor, Disability Studies, Arizona State University:

Unmothering Autism is articulate and theoretically sophisticated while still grappling with a very important and impactful issue: care.