Neurofutures : Neurodiversity in Crip Time

Reimagines neurodiversity through intersections of race, disability, and social justice

Neurodiversity has progressed from niche activism to a household term; our culture is now saturated with social media ads promising to "train" ADHD brains and media tropes like the quirky savant. But amidst this barrage of content urging self-optimization against a neurotypical template, Neurofutures pauses to ask: what comes next? Editors Diana R. Paulin, M. Remi Yergeau, Ralph James Savarese, and Elizabeth J. Donaldson gather a diverse array of scholars and creatives to think through "crip time" – sideways, chronic, manic, and executive dysfunction time – to reimagine the future of cognitive difference.

Moving beyond a simplistic celebration of diversity, the collection interrogates the intersections of race, disability, and social justice. Contributors offer "mad provocations" that span from Black neurodivergence and Afrofuturism to neuroqueer paradigms and animal liberation. Through analyses of cultural texts – ranging from the folklore of "Little Eight John" to the speculative worlds of Octavia Butler and Shirley Jackson – the essays deconstruct the violence of neurotypical norms while advocating for the rights of neurodivergent people to full lives and care.

Neurofutures refuses the linear march of progress, instead delving into the complex, often hidden realities of lived experience to map a world that welcomes divergence, dissent, and deep compassion.