[Linganth] Call for Papers: "Towards a neurodiverse sociocultural linguistics"

[Ayden Parish]

 *Call for Papers, Special Issue: “Towards a neurodiverse sociocultural
linguistics”*
Editors Ayden Parish and Kira Hall

Neurodiversity, understood as the range of human cognitive and neurological
variance, has been classically marginalized as only of interest through a
medicalized, pathologizing lens. The neurodiversity movement, however,
advocates that these differences should not be seen as biomedical entities
to be first and foremost cured, but as variation to be accommodated and as
lived experiences whose perspectives should be recognized and valued.
Across the social sciences, neurodiversity-affirming approaches have come
to demonstrate that a sociocultural angle is necessary, both in order to
improve theorization of neurodiverse conditions and also to bring a new
critical eye to current theories that only account for normative
relationships with language and sociality. Crucially, these critiques make
important steps in asserting the agency of neurodivergent individuals. We
hope to further enrich these discussions with specific attention to
sociocultural linguistics as a site for neurodiverse intervention.

We invite papers for a special topics issue on neurodiversity to be
submitted to *Language in Society*. Our aim is to demonstrate the necessity
of incorporating neurodiversity into the study of language in social life
and to showcase the productive new directions engendered by such
approaches. We welcome a broad vision of neurodiversity that includes not
only neurodevelopmental disabilities such as autism, ADHD, and Tourette
syndrome, but also other neurological conditions like dementia and aphasia,
as well as mental illnesses, including but not limited to schizophrenia,
bipolar disorder, and OCD.

We are interested in papers from a diversity of disciplinary viewpoints,
including linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, socially-oriented
discourse analysis, crip linguistics and related perspectives, among
others. Possible topics include:

   - Analyses of interactions amongst neurodiverse speakers
   - Ethnographic approaches to language and embodiment in neurodiverse
   communities
   - Discourse analytical approaches to the construction of neurodiversity
   and neurotypicality
   - Critical reframings of traditionally pathologized linguistic behaviors
   such as echolalia or “disorganized” speech
   - Other creative, socially-oriented approaches to the intersection of
   neurodiversity and linguistics

We are especially interested in hearing from early career scholars and
those examining neurodiversity’s intersections with race, gender,
sexuality, and other disabilities.

If you are interested in submitting a paper to the special issue, please
email an abstract of up to 500 words by *January 8th *to the editors. Full
drafts of selected papers will be due in May of 2024. Please feel free to
write the editors with any inquiries: Ayden Parish (
ayden.parish at colorado.edu) and Kira Hall (kira.hall at colorado.edu).

--
*Ayden Parish* (they/them)
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Linguistics
University of Colorado Boulder
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