Neurodiversity in the Arts Symposium

The Neurodiversity in the Arts Symposium will bring together teachers, researchers, students, activists, and practitioners across the arts, whose work and/or lived experiences engage with concepts of neurodiversity and neurodivergence in relation to fields in the arts and arts education. The symposium will take place online on November 15, 2024, and onsite at the University of the Arts Helsinki on November 22, 2024. The language of the symposium is English.

Registration Information

Registration includes participation in online day (November 15) and access to recordings of the sessions (via private link) for both online and onsite days. This fee also includes admittance to the onsite day (November 22), provided there are enough available spots (please see info below regarding onsite day capacity limitations and related selection process for in-person attendees).

Registration costs:
€100 for participants receiving full institutional financial support for registration.
Otherwise, please select the €0 fee option.

Important information for those attending the Onsite day on November 22:
The onsite day on November 22 will be held in a space that has a maximum capacity of 60 occupants. This space was chosen because it is ideal for accessibility and to accommodate multiple ways of being and moving in a symposium setting.

There are a limited number of spaces for the onsite session (November 22) registration. Registration is guaranteed for confirmed symposium presenters as well as attendees who are traveling from outside of southern Finland (Uusimaa region), as long as you register by October 1, 2024. This is to ensure that attendees from afar can adequately prepare to make plans for travel to Helsinki.

For attendees registering from southern Finland, the spot in the onsite day is not immediately guaranteed. You will be notified of your onsite attendance status shortly after October 1, 2024.

If you have any questions, please contact www.uniarts.fi/neuroarts

Quick notes for symposium access and logistics

• Both the online and onsite sessions will be recorded to provide for greater access to attendees. 
• All virtual sessions will be live-captioned by a CART specialist. All recordings of the sessions will be captioned and transcribed. 
• For the November 15 online day, sessions will be scheduled to span across many global time zones to allow for the broadest synchronous participation.
• For the November 22 onsite day: This symposium is a stim-friendly event. There will be multiple quiet rooms available for attendees. The primary event room will feature multiple modes of being and moving in the space.
• For more in-depth details about access and logistics, please visit the Symposium access and presentation logistics section on this website.

Keynote Speaker

We are very happy to welcome Kai Syng Tan as the keynote speaker for the onsite day 22 November

Kai Syng Tan PhD PFHEA (she/they, @kaisyngtan) is an artist-academic-agitator known for her trademark ‘eclectic style & cheeky attitude’ (Sydney Morning Herald).

Her keynote performance-lecture draws on her new book Neuro-Futurism and Re-Imagining Leadership: An A-Z towards Collective Liberation, which re-imagines ‘leadership’ as a trans-disciplinary, (co-)creative, diversified, decolonised, neuro-queered practice of change and future-making.

Hyper-active by nature and design, Kai has many tentacles. She is is a research leader (founded and/or (co-)led 6 global research networks, including the 435-member Neurodiversity In/& Creative Research Network; recognised as ‘absolutely instrumental’ in re-framing running as creative discourse) and trans-disciplinary innovator (first artist on a Royal College of Psychiatrist’s editorial board).

Kai is also a change-maker (as Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival juror, awarding the top award to a filmmaker formerly imprisoned by the Myanmar military junta; as trustee of a charity for detained refugees, drove its radical transformation by embedding co-creation and anti-oppression practices, leading to the appointment of its first, black neurodivergent female Artistic Director), as well as curator and creative director (leading programmes ranging from £0 to £4.8m, including a Black History Month celebration that reached 18.2 million worldwide, and the opening and closing ceremonies of Asia’s Paralympics praised as ‘game-changing’ by disability groups).

Apart from being an artist (San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Film Award; showcases in MoMA, Guangzhou Triennale, Royal Geographical Society), Kai is also provocateur (regularly delivering keynote lectures; expert advisor for UK and Singapore government bodies, international research councils and even a ministry of defence), creative theorist/writer (publications include BBC, Guggenheim, Frontiers Psychology and The Manila Times), as well as mentor, teacher and academic developer (awarded Principal Fellowship; taught in 200 universities worldwide; regularly delivers masterclasses such as for Royal Society of Arts).

By day Kai is an Associate Professor in Arts and Cultural Leadership at the University of Southampton, UK.

Program / Schedule

The Program for the Neurodiversity in the Arts symposium is now available!

Online Day Program – November 15, 2024
All Times Helsinki / EET / UTC +3 / GMT +3

9:00–9:15 Welcome and Intro to Oceania, Eurasia and Africa audiences
9:15–10:15 Session 1
I. Understanding the Lived Experiences of Neurodivergent Transgender Youth – Angela Ingram
II. Advancing Neurodiversity Awareness: Music Education Students’ Insights on the Standing of Neurominorities in Finnish Music Teacher Education – Elina Luhtala

10:30–11.30 Session 2
I. Text(ile) Writing: Material Conditions of Language – Anouk Hoogendoorn
II. Rituals with Repetitive Movements and Sounds for Societal Health: Towards a Stimming-based and Experience-oriented Design of Interactive Music Systems – Jin Hyun Kim & Marcello Lussana

11:45–12:30 Session 3
Panel session: Safer Spaces for Neurodivergent Activists, Artists and Scholars – Katja Juhola, Meri-Tuuli Hirvonen & Anu Laukkanen

13:15–14:15 Session 4
Panel session: Neurodiversity and Actor Training: Reframing the Conversation – Zoe Glen & Klara Hricik

14:30–16:00 Session 5
I. Putting Neurodiversity Approaches into Practice at Berklee College of Music – Rhoda Bernard
II. Thriving in Arts Administration: Sharing Strategies for the Workplace – Lauren O’Neal

16:00–16:15 Welcome and Intro to audiences in the Americas
16:15–17:15 Session 6
I. The Role of Neurodiversity in Teaching and Artistic Practice – Alexandra Allen
II. Who will Yield First – Anna Broms

17:30–18:30 Session 7
I. Negotiating Autistic Representations in Media – Laura Hetrick
II. Abstracting Towards Inclusion: Disability as Creative Method in ABR – Maria Guarino

18:45–20:00 Session 8
I. The pedagogical aesthetics of Mel Baggs and Sonia Boué – Albert Stabler
II. Structures that Enable: Using Structured Artmaking to Overcome Choice Overwhelm for Neurodivergent Artists – Melissa Granovsky & Kathryn Urbaniak

20:00–21:00 Session 9
Panel session: Bad Reading(s) – Elisabeth Hjorth & Anna Nygren

Onsite Days Program – November 21 & 22, 2024
All Times Helsinki / EET / UTC +3 / GMT +3

Thursday, November 21 – Evening Pre-Session at Theatre Academy Lobby

18:00–19:00 Workshop session
Anti-Institutional Coat: A Neuroqueer Dreaming Performance – Fran Trento

19:00– Optional gathering for food and drink (location TBA)

Friday, November 22 – White Studio Mylly Building at Academy of Fine Arts

9:00–9:15 Welcome and Introduction
9:15–10:15 Session 1
Workshop session: Doing Neurodiversity: Wayfaring Words – Antje Nestel & Aion Arribas

10:45–11:45 Session 2
I. Stepping into Crip Time with Cinematography – Audrey Hillgoss & Michelle Attias
II. Divergent Care: Disability-Affirming Art Therapy Program Design for Neurodivergent Children and Adolescents in Therapeutic Day Schools – Jamisen Paustian

12:00–13:15 Session 3
Keynote Speaker: Kai Syng Tan
Neuro-Futurism and Re-Imagining Leadership: A decolonial, neuro-queered and co-creative practice

13:15–14:30 Break for Lunch

14:30– 15:30 Session 4
I. Drawing Across Boundaries: Exploring Creative Art Education in a Prison Setting – Veronica Cordova
II. Dancing Hors Sujet: Butohing/Bodying – Julie Dind

15:45–16:45 Session 5
Panel session: Thinking Out from the Hands: Affectivity and Neurodiversity in Art practice, Pedagogy and Research – Jonathan Boyd & Mah Rana

17:00–18:00 Session 6
I. What it means to Us: Neurodivergent Curators, Neurodivergent Histories – Iris Sirendi
II. The Ma(s)king Work of Conferencing, Towards a Neuroqueer Conference Manifesto/a/x – Ela Przybyto

18:00– Optional gathering for the dinner and drink (location TBA)

Position statement by symposium organisers

Emphasis on neurodiversity paradigm and neurodiversity approaches

By following a neurodiversity paradigm (Walker 2014) or neurodiversity approaches (Dwyer 2022), we position the Neurodiversity in the Arts symposium as a platform for analyzing, challenging, and transforming ableist societal attitudes and practices that stigmatize neurodivergent minds and ways of being. Medical models of pathology paradigms are often portrayed as approaching neurodivergence as a deficit, defect, or disorder that must be cured, fixed, modified, or masked to adhere to an arbitrary normative ideal. Such models of intervention that are harmful and destructive to the individual are overwhelmingly entwined and bound by ableist discourses and practices.

To counter the medical model, we advocate for socio-relational approaches toof neurodiversity. This affirms human variation and neurodivergent identity, while recognizing that such an affirmation of identity is not at odds with contextual approaches that maintain or augment the quality of life and wellbeing of individuals. As such, this symposium welcomes discussion on how neurodiversity and critical reform approaches can contribute to changing the ableist ways in which the pathology paradigm or medical model approaches neurodiversity.

[Dr. Nick Walker’s 2014/2021 essay Neurodiversity: Some Basic Terms & Definitions offers greater depth of this discussion, as well as an enormous wealth of insight into the various terms associated with neurodiversity. Patrick Dwyer’s 2022 article The Neurodiversity Approach(es): What Are They and What Do They Mean for Researchers? offers an excellent discussion of the various recent neurodiversity approaches.]

Emphasis on intersectional and neuroqueer approaches

We follow Niles et al (2017) call for greater recognition that “ableism is a socially constructed complex system of disempowerment which intersects with, and is just as pervasive as, other systems of oppression”. The lived experience of neurodivergence is inherently entwined with, and compounded by oppressions of minoritized lived experiences of race, ethnicity, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, and other identity markers. We also espouse neuroqueerness as a form of disidentification that rejects oppressive norms and medical model discourses, advocating for a more inclusive, fluid conceptualisation of identity that transcends traditional categories.

While presentations in this symposium are not required to specifically or directly address intersectionality or neuroqueerness, we eagerly encourage presentations that particularly focus on this intersectional and neuroqueer engagment across the issues of neurodiversity, arts, and arts education toward challenging and dismantling ableism; White supremacy and racism; colonialism and xenophobia; ageism; sexism and misogyny; cisnormativity and transphobia; and heteronormativity and heterosexism.

[Miles, A. L., Nishida, A., & Forber-Pratt, A. J. (2017). An open letter to White disability studies and ableist institutions of higher education. Disability Studies Quarterly, 37(3).]

Terminology and language

The symposium organizers recognize and support the use of terminology that aligns with one’s identity and lived experience. We acknowledge the validity of identity-first and person-first language, as well as other forms, in expressing personal preferences of disability and neurodivergent experiences.

Symposium access and presentation logistics

15 November – Online sessions

• Sessions will be scheduled to span across many global time zones to allow for the broadest synchronous participation.
• Presenters have the option to present their sessions live or as a pre-recorded video (and then live for discussion).
• Live-captioning for all presentations and discussions will be provided by a CART specialist.
• All presentations and discussions will be recorded and uploaded to the symposium video platform during the week of the 18th of November, and will be accessible to all registered attendees via a private link.
• Recorded videos available on the symposium video platform will include captions and transcripts.

22 November – Onsite sessions

• In-person presenters have the option to present their sessions live or as a pre-recorded video (and then live for discussion).
• A CART specialist will provide live-captioning for all in-person presentations and discussions.
• All in-person presentations and discussions will be recorded and uploaded to the symposium video platform during the week of the 25th of November, and will be accessible to all registered attendees via a private link.
• Recorded videos available on the symposium video platform will include captions and transcripts.

Access for 22 November attendees

The symposium session will be held in the White Studio at Uniarts Helsinki. There will be various options available and encouraged for attendees to be fluidly situated within the space, including conventional seating, plush-padded chairs, bean bag chairs, floor mats, and space for movement.

The symposium will be a stim (physical and verbal) friendly space. Attendees are welcome to sit, stand, lay down, move around, and leave (and return to) the space at any point during the symposium.

There will be a larger quiet room available for attendees located near the White Studio. This space has low lighting and offers furniture for various modes of sitting, resting, and being in the space. Disposable ear plugs, over-the-ear noise-blocking headphones, and a selection of stim toys will be available for attendees to use in all of the symposium spaces.

There will be two private quiet booths available for attendees to use throughout the symposium. Each booth provides low-light spaces containing sound-proofing headphones.

This symposium is a fragrance-free space, and we specifically ask that attendees avoid any fragrances for the onsite day.

All attendees will receive detailed maps and directions for navigating central Helsinki as well as navigating the Uniarts Helsinki campus. There will also be clear and comprehensive signage throughout the Uniarts Helsinki campus lobby and common areas guiding attendees to the White Studio and the quiet rooms. Uniarts student employees will be stationed at various points for additional wayfinding at the symposium.

Support and organising committee

The Neurodiversity in the Arts symposium is generously funded and hosted by the University of the Arts Helsinki, and is affiliated with the International Disability Studies, Arts & Education (iDSAE) Network. It builds upon the themes of the previous iDSAE conferences hosted in 2017, 2019, and 2021.

The organising committee

• Timothy Smith (committee chair) / Research Institute, University of the Arts Helsinki
• Alexandra Allen / SUNY Buffalo State, USA
• jt Eisenhauer Richardson / The Ohio State University, USA
• Flis Holland / Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki
• Liisa Jaakonaho / Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki
• Mira Kallio-Tavin / University of Georgia, USA
• Albert Stabler / Illinois State University, USA
• Fran Trento / University of Helsinki
• Alice Wexler / Professor Emerita, SUNY New Paltz, USA
• Johanna Rauhaniemi (coordinator) / University of the Arts Helsinki

Contact for inquiries

For questions or comments about the Neurodiversity in the Arts Symposium, please contact: neuroarts@uniarts.fi