We’re all strangers here

This piece forms part of my linguistic ethnographic doctoral thesis, investigating the ways in which mutual understanding does and does not break down between autistic and non-autistic people. As an autistic researcher researching autistic language use, it became increasingly apparent throughout my research that I could not separate myself and my ”insider perspective” from my work. Autoethnographic creative writing offers a way to reflect on my inter-relation with the subject matter as well as ”giving voice” to those [autistic people more generally] who are often overlooked. Autism is heterogeneous in its nature and autistic people are diverse in ways that popular conventions and stereotypes don’t often afford. In this piece I represent three very different characters—each autistic—to give some insight into the breadth of what ”autistic-ness” can be. The first character is based on myself, exploring the tensions found in being an autist within the academy. The two fictionalized characters are composites of my research participants, based on my ethnographic observations.