Shannon, D. B. (May 2022). ​‘Intensive interactions’: (Neuro)Queer intimacies, and ‘animate literacies’ in the special education classroom. Canadian Sociological Association. Virtual.

Such neuroessentialism is inimical to neuroqueering, to creative neurofluidity and creative hybridity. I'm already seeing some people criticize or reject the neurodiversity movement, or even the very concept of neurodiversity, because it's too associated with essentialism and with sorting people into rigid categories by “type of brain.” But that sort of essentialism is by no means inherent to the neurodiversity paradigm; on the contrary, I think that to some degree it's a relic of the pathology paradigm that the neurodiversity movement just hasn't managed to finish outgrowing yet. Until we do outgrow it, it's a pitfall that has the unfortunate potential to derail our journey toward a neuroqueer future. The neurodiversity paradigm is a specific perspective on neurodiversity – a perspective or approach that boils down to these fundamental principles: This project reviewed extant literature related to the entanglement of children’s language with place.Egner, J. E. (2019). “The Disability Rights Community was Never Mine”: Neuroqueer Disidentification. Gender & Society, 33(1), 123-147. Shannon, D.B. ' Perversity, precarity, and anxiety: tracing a ‘more precise typology’ of the affect of neuroqueer failure in an in-school research-creation project.' International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, pp. 1-15. The idea that there is one “normal” or “healthy” type of brain or mind, or one “right” style of neurocognitive functioning, is a culturally constructed fiction, no more valid (and no more conducive to a healthy society or to the overall well-being of humanity) than the idea that there is one “normal” or “right” ethnicity, gender, or culture.

Shannon, D. B. (April 2019). (Neuro)queer temporalities: ‘Surprising deviants’ in northern England. American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (AAACS). Toronto, ON. Another prominent description of neuroqueer has to do specifically with the relations between the LGBTQ+ movement and the disability rights movement. Melanie Yergeau, who is most noted when researching this particular definition of neuroqueer, parallels society’s rhetoric surrounding the LGBTQ+ movement with the neurodivergent movement in her book, Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queering.Shannon, D. B. (August 2023). Problematising Competence in Special Education Classrooms through Intensive Interactions communication strategies. European Congress of Educational Research (ECER). Glasgow, UK. Shannon, D. B. (2022). Perversity, precarity, and an embarrassment of (neuro)queer failures: Tracing a ‘more precise typology’ of the affects of failure and anxiety in an in-school research-creation project. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. ( Open Access)