Margaret F. Gibson

Unyielding: Words Under Fire - Sharvari Karandikar, Margaret F. Gibson, Mery Diaz, 2025

Affilia's latest editorial, "Unyielding: Words Under Fire", is now available.

We are always looking for critical, timely, and thoughtful submissions.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

“There is Nowhere Else That I’d Rather be Than with Them”: Parents’ Positive Experiences Parenting Autistic Children - Melanie Heyworth, Catherine McMahon, Diana Weiting Tan, Elizabeth Pellicano, 2025 Background and Aims A significant body of research focuses on the negative outcomes of parenting Autistic children, particularly when parents identify as non-Au...

Even though the media tends to dwell on negative aspects of parenting autistic kids, researchers are asking, "What do parents value about their Autistic children, & what characterizes parents’ positive relationships with their Autistic children?" Heyworth et al:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

In celebration of #Pride Month, I would like to highlight some of the incredible #2SLGBTQIA+ leaders at the University of Waterloo. | Charmaine Dean In celebration of #Pride Month, I would like to highlight some of the incredible #2SLGBTQIA+ leaders at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Margaret F. Gibson is an associate professor in Social Developm...

I was happy to talk with University of Waterloo folks about being a 2SLGBTQIA+ researcher and prof. Pride can be a year-round thing!
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

What texts do people use to think about, understand, and build upon the language and concept of ‘neurodiversity’? We have a new (open access) article out in the journal Neurodiversity. People talked about books, video games, the DSM, TV shows, and more!

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Our podcast about the Eloping Project is out, hosted by UBC's Dr. Barbara Lee! We shared what Autistic folks have to say about why and how they leave places, and how other people should (and should not) respond.

blogs.ubc.ca/swkx/episode...

Unyielding: Words Under Fire - Sharvari Karandikar, Margaret F. Gibson, Mery Diaz, 2025

Our next Affilia editorial is out (online first).
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Patriarchal Hammers Some thoughts on the recent judgement by the Supreme Court

This was following on from Patriarchal Hammers. Too many blows. Solidarity!
feministkilljoys.substack.com/p/patriarcha...

I was thrilled to share survey and interview findings from the Eloping Project at the University of Sheffield yesterday. Thanks to @davidbenshannon.bsky.social and the School of Education for hosting!

Slides available through the link.

uwaterloo.ca/scholar/m23g...

You are all invited to register for the new Affilia webinar on May 8 -- this time about arts-based research! bit.ly/AffiliaWebinarMay2025

YouTube video by Green College UBC Applied Critique

This was a fun conversation on Applied Critique in academic work with Hannah Kia, Julia Bullard, and Tina Wilson. My part focused on tensions around queer kinship, neurodiversity, and Autistic "eloping".

Also, January feels like a long time ago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaJJ...

Leading Autism Organizations Release Joint Statement on Upholding Scientific Integrity and Supporting the Autism Community - Autistic Self Advocacy Network April 17, 2025, Washington, D.C. – As national organizations dedicated to advancing the well-being of Autistic individuals, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Autism Society of America, Autism Speaks, The Arc of the United States, Autistic Women and Non-Binary Network, Autistic People of Color Fund, and partners across the disability and…

Today in Dogs and Cats, Living Together: ASAN @autisticadvocacy.org *and* Autism Speaks (and a host of other autism orgs) unite to denounce the pile of rancid garbage that is the current administration's statements and positions on autism and autistic people:

autisticadvocacy.org/2025/04/lead...

Happy Trans Day of Visibility! We love, honor, and stand by our trans community members. You are the greatest!

We also support Trans Lifeline, which “provides trans peer support for our community that’s been divested from police since day one. We’re run by and for trans people.” translifeline.org

Blue, white, and pink gradient background. There is a large transgender flag (blue, pink, white, pink, and blue horizontal stripes) in the middle. At the top text reads: ASAN Celebrates Trans Day of Visibility. At the bottom, text reads: Today we celebrate trans lives, trans joy, and trans resistance! The ASAN logo is at the bottom.

Today is Trans Day of Visibility. Trans Day of Visibility is a day for celebrating trans lives, trans joy, and trans resistance. ASAN will continue to fight back against attacks on trans rights and work towards a world in which transgender autistic people are respected and included everywhere.

Why Medicaid cuts could be a 'crisis' for people with disabilities If the new administration slashes federal Medicaid spending, millions of people with disabilities would be cut off from critical health care services.

"[Potential changes to Medicaid] would dramatically alter states’ budgets and could curtail or end care for millions of people with disabilities."

Feminism, Antifeminism, and the Mobilization of Regret Guest edited by Laura Green (Northeastern University) and Chris Bobel (University of Massachusetts Boston) Feminism is forward-looking and world-building. Feminists everywhere can call to mind the manifestos, mobilizations, solidarities, creative inspirations, legal propositions, and revolutionary paradigms that inspire us to action and move us toward more just futures. At the same time, we may also be haunted by obstacles encountered, losses experienced, and regrets felt along the way. With over fifty years of feminist history behind the journal—and, we hope, another fifty years of feminist troublemaking ahead—Signs seeks essays that delineate both how feminists may experience, theorize, and productively apply the concept of regret and how it may, alternatively, thwart the development of feminist futures. We seek essays that make theoretical, analytical, and/or activist interventions. We welcome papers that engage the complex dynamics and larger contexts of regret, from the personal, emotional, and creative realms to the social, political, and empirical; or that consider how regret converges with or departs from related affective terrains of shame, guilt, grief, or nostalgia. As always, Signs encourages transdisciplinary and transnational essays that address substantive feminist questions, debates, and forms of literary, artistic, and cultural representation and that minimize disciplinary or academic jargon. Scan the QR code or visit www.signsjournal.org/cfps for the full call for papers and submission instructions.

Submissions for our upcoming special issue "Feminism, Antifeminism, and the Mobilization of Regret," are due May 1, 2025! Check out the full call at signsjournal.org/for-authors/...

Reminder: we are being trained not to care about other people. It underlines the attacks on migrants, on DEI, on trans youth, on so-called "wokeness."

Sure there are legitimate critiques but this is not about critiques. It's about supercharging capitalism's culture of uncare.

A glass green wave curls to crash on a rocky gray beach under a stormy sky

Take a break and look at the sea

Call for Abstracts: Critical Neurodiversity Studies, 24–26 June 2025, Durham, UK Submissions for Critical Neurodiversity Studies: Directions/Intersections/Contradictions close 28 February 2025.

If anyone hasn't seen this, here is our critical neurodiversity studies conference call for abstracts.

"We will focus on scholarship that synthesises a concern for neurodivergent liberation with other critical traditions and liberation movements globally."

medhumsplatform.org/call-for-abs...

Textured light blue background with a dotted dark blue curved rectangular border. Inside a dark blue banner, white bold text says, “Action Alert!” Black text reads: We need your help to protect Medicaid! Learn how to set up meetings with your legislator’s offices. Talk to them about why Medicaid is important and why the federal government should not make it harder for people to get Medicaid services. The ASAN logo is at the bottom.

Take action to protect Medicaid! Learn how to set up meetings with your legislator’s offices and talk to them about why Medicaid is important. https://buff.ly/4gg2tk5

Autism Speaks Canada shuts down in January. Good. By Autistics for Autistics As Canada’s autistic-led advocacy group and an international affiliate of the Autistic Self Advocacy Organization, we are relieved that Autism Speaks Canada will be shutt…

Autism Speaks Canada shuts down in January. The Canadian org Autistics for Autistics thinks this is both good, and "an opportunity for autistics and our families to collaborate locally to build new, neuro-affirming spaces and projects."

a4aontario.com/2024/12/17/a...

YouTube video by Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work The Morning After: Context, Politics and Critical Feminism

If you missed last month’s webinar “The Morning After: Context, Politics, and Critical Feminisms” watch the recording on our YouTube Channel youtu.be/SqFY-4Qw79Y?fe…

First post! Happy to arrive here. I am interested in neurodiversity research, feminist scholarship, gardening tips, and all the fox and owl pictures this site has been sending my way.