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23
May
2022

Call for Abstracts

Call for Abstracts
WORKSHOP & SPECIAL ISSUE

Critical and Intersectional ADHD Thought:
ADHDers Think Back

*** Please distribute widely ***

*** Deadline extended to 28 Oct 2022 ***

The organisers invite ADHD academics, PhD students and activists to submit an abstract for the workshop Critical and Intersectional ADHD Thought: ADHDers Think Back. We seek to publish a selection of the papers that result from the workshop as a special issue, with the same title, in an international disability journal. Please find considerations for submission below.

Organisers

  • Dr Dyi D. Huijg (lead), Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Sociology, University of Roehampton
  • Dr Eric Olund, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Sheffield

Contact information

Complete timeline

  • 5 Sep 2022: Submission abstracts
  • 26 Sep 2022: Communication decision abstracts
  • 28 Oct: EXTENSION Submission abstracts
  • 15 May 2023: Submission complete draft papers for panel/workshop
  • 29 May 2023: Submission comments on draft papers
  • w/c 5 Jun 2023: Workshop with panels
  • 3 Jul 2023: Submission paper to the special issue for external review
  • Date TBC: Recorded conversation for the special issue’s Afterword

Current ADHD research

Despite recent exponential growth, the field of ADHD Studies is predominantly produced by non-ADHDers and continues to be dominated by the ‘medical/individual model of ADHD’ (Huijg, under review). This can refer to a biomedical lens (symptomatological, medicinal, genetic, neuroscientific etc.), clinical or therapeutic approaches for ‘treating’ ADHD, and/or to blatant anti-ADHD ableism. It can refer to any way that ADHD or ADHDers are posited as a problem or burden to themselves, or to anyone or anything else. What is central in this model is that the cause of ADHDers’ difficulties and/or the responsibility and solutions for these difficulties are located in, for instance, the ‘ADHD brain’, ‘ADHD treatment’, or the ADHDer’s behaviour or mental health (management). Even when ‘social dimensions of ADHD’ are discussed, they are too often made sense of “as a direct consequence of individual impairments” (cf. Oliver, 1990, p.6).

Publications with a more benevolent intention – employing an ‘It Is NOT Your Fault’ approach, focussing on empowerment, and/or on ‘good qualities/benefits’ of ADHDers in the workplace – might seek to move away from the problem/burden rhetoric, but rarely escape the individual responsibility/solutions angle. This is reinforced by the non-engagement with the disability movement’s adage ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’: ADHD knowledge is produced about ADHD and ADHDers, but without ADHDers’ own voices. It is fair to claim, then, that ADHD knowledge production is overwhelmingly dominated by the medical/individual model of ADHD and its gatekeepers.

Despite a 1:1 gender ratio of adult ADHD, ADHD is still associated with naughty white boys climbing up the walls and annoying their parents/teachers (Huijg, under review; see also e.g. Alharbi, 2017, p.2188). There is increasing literature about ADHD women, although specifically feminist analyses are missing. There is almost no research on race and ADHD – this includes a lack of the most foundational knowledge about, for instance, racial biases and disparities in accessing ADHD healthcare (e.g. in the UK this lacuna was only recognised last year by prominent ADHD professionals and scholars, see Young et al., 2021, p.4). Too much of the scientific ADHD literature lacks representation or mostly focuses on boys men (e.g. Biederman et al., 2012), on white people (Barkley, 2008; Michielsen et al., 2015), or relies on the exclusion of, for instance, indigenous populations such as “Canadians living on an aboriginal setting” (Pond, Fowler & Hesson, 2019, p.946). There is practically no knowledge on ADHD and other social categories – e.g. sexuality, faith, gender identity or class. And research that does engage with multiple social categories can still reproduce problematic if not neuroableist ideas.

At this point, it is fair to conclude that ADHD Studies is an acritical and non-intersectional field, produced by non-ADHDers.[1] What we need is critical and intersectional ADHD knowledge produced by ADHDers themselves.

An invitation to ADHD academics, PhD students and activists

We invite academics, PhD students and activists who identify as ADHDer to submit an abstract for a complete draft paper for the workshop Critical and Intersectional ADHD Thought: ADHDers Think Back. From the submitted papers to the workshop, a selection of the papers will be invited to rework their paper to submit it to a special issue, with the same title, which we seek to publish in an (open access/free) international disability journal.

We want to emphasise that at this moment in time there are no specialists as Critical and Intersectional ADHD Thought is an emerging area of study. We encourage those yet unfamiliar with the terrain to expand their existing research knowledge to ADHDness.[2] We welcome email enquiries and informal conversations to explore such ‘expansion’.

The workshop

For a timeline, see the top of this Call.

  • The workshop will be online (w/c 5 Jun 2023, on Zoom).
  • The workshop will have several panels. Each panel will consist of 4-5 contributors and a facilitator.
  • Each contributor will submit a complete draft paper 3 weeks before the workshop. (Submission 15 May 2023)
  • Each contributor will read the other papers from their panel and will prepare – inquisitive and critical, but kind – questions and comments for the other panellists[3]. (Submission 29 May 2023)
  • Each contributor will receive these questions and comments in writing a week before the panel, so they can prepare their response to all or a selection of the questions
  • During the online panel, each panellist will briefly summarise their paper; they will then respond to questions and comments. (There will be a time limit.)
  • Contributors are encouraged to attend other panels, but cannot participate. The panels are closed to the public.

After the workshop:

  • A selection of the contributors will be invited to revise their paper to submit to a special issue, with the same title, that we will seek to publish with an international disability journal. (Submission 3 Jul 2023)
  • With the contributors to the special issue, we intend to hold a conversation after submission about what we think Critical and Intersectional ADHD Studies should be and what future directions it should take. This will be recorded, transcribed and edited, and appear as an Afterward in the special issue. (Date TBC)

Topics might include but are not limited to:

  • Why are we? Religious and spiritual interpretations of ADHD ethics
  • Cripping ADHD research
  • What is wrong with school? Intersectional ADHD-affirmative reflections on policing, discipline & exclusion
  • ADHD non-linearity and creativity
  • A Marxist-Feminist analysis of ADHD and housework
  • The role of behaviourism in the ADHD industry
  • Trans-ing while ADHD-ing: questions for intersectional justice
  • ADHDing spatiality in the colonial order
  • Representations of anti-ADHD neuronormativity in film
  • Whiteness and masculinity of ADHD communities
  • For whom are ADHD organisations and ADHD policy? An intersectional analysis of absence
  • ADHDness and methods
  • Writing against neurotypical temporality: de-clocking ADHD time
  • A critical ADHD analysis of the role of the state, migration and border control in AI
  • ADHD, climate emergency and the Anthropocene
  • A conversational analysis of multilayered ADHD talk
  • An Afrocentric ADHD approach to late capitalism
  • Histories & genealogies of ADHDness
  • Reading ADHDness into poetry
  • Decolonising ADHD knowledge
  • Growing up with anti-ADHD neuroableism; living with trauma
  • ADHD and the academy: how are we?

Considerations for authors

For this workshop, we only invite ADHDers to ‘think back’ and submit an abstract for a paper:

  • We invite ADHD academics (including independent ADHD academics) and PhD students
  • We invite ADHD activists, alone or with an academic
  • A special invite to papers authored by multiply marginalised ADHDers
  • A special invite to papers authored by ADHDers from the Global South
  • You are welcome to co-author a paper (i.e. with other ADHDers)
  • ADHDers who would like to contribute but would need to publish anonymously are welcome to submit an abstract for the workshop. Whether or not this can be published anonymously will depend on the journal and is TBC.

Considerations for your paper

  • Submission draft paper: we expect that papers submitted for the workshop are complete and formatted draft papers
  • Word count: max. 6000words, including footnotes
  • References: max. 40 references
  • Formatting: Word document, Arial 12pt, 1.5 line spacing
    • Note that submissions of the final paper for the special issue will undergo regular ‘external review’ per the guidelines of the journal
  • Papers need to produce critical[4] ADHD thought
    • Papers that offer an intersectional approach are in particular invited.
    • Consider engaging with, for instance, intersectional disability, social model of disability, feminist, race critical, feminist and black feminist disability, disability justice, critical disability, DisCrit, trans, trans disability, critical faith, neurodiversity, critical autism, mad or survivor, anti-capitalist, crip, neuroqueer or adjacent approaches.
  • Papers need to move purposefully away from the medical/individual model of ADHD
    • Critical discussions of the medical, pharmaceutical and diagnostic industry – as well as inequalities therein – are explicitly welcome.
    • Papers that offer biomedical, symptomatological, neuroscientific, experimental, clinical, treatment or adjacent research on ADHD will be rejected. (Note, papers that critique such approaches are welcome.) As a rule of thumb, if your paper might be a good fit for the Journal of Attention Disorders, it might not fit this call. (Contact the organisers if you want to discuss this in relation to the idea for your abstract.)
    • Papers that promote ADHD denialism will be rejected.
    • Papers that judge personal choices of ADHDers in accessing ADHD healthcare (including ADHD medication use) will be rejected.

Tick list for abstract submission

  • Word count: 400-500words (include references in your abstract)
  • Formatting: Word document, Arial 12pt, 1.5 line spacing
  • Working title
  • Personal details authors (where applicable):
    • Confirm the author(s) identify as an ADHDer
    • Full name
    • Title (please include PhD student status, if applicable)
    • Affiliation (e.g. department, university; organisation; independent researcher)
    • Expected time zone during the workshop w/c 5 Jun 2023
    • Email address(es) for correspondence
    • Anonymity in case of publishing: please clarify this, if applicable
  • Your abstract should give a clear idea about what you intend to write in the paper that you will submit to the workshop.
    • The abstract includes a discussion of the theoretical framework(s) that you will employ, the ‘object’ of your analysis, the methods or approach you will rely on, the analysis that you intend to offer, the argument(s) that you will make, and what the paper seeks to achieve
  • The abstract makes clear that the paper will meet the aforementioned considerations
    • The abstract makes explicit what/how it will contribute to the emerging area of ‘Critical and Intersectional ADHD Thought’
    • If applicable, the abstract makes clear, implicitly or explicitly, that/how the paper will move away from the medical/individual model of ADHD, ADHD denialism, and that it will not judge personal choices with regards to ADHD healthcare
      • Specifically if your paper intends to employ a critical and intersectional ADHD lens to critique, for instance, sectors that produce the medical/individual model of ADHD, ADHD healthcare and/or the ADHD industry, abstract needs to detail how it will do so
  • Extension submission dates:
    • abstract: 28 Oct 2022
    • paper: 15 May 2023
  • Submit your abstract to: ADHDersThinkBack AT gmail.com

Reference list

Alharbi, Rabab S. (2017). “ADHD in 140 characters or less: An analysis of Twitter commentary on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Saudi Arabia”. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 5(12), 2186-2195.

Barkley, Russell A. (2008). ADHD in adults: What the science says. New York: The Guildford Press.

Biederman, Joseph, Petty, Carter R, Woodworth, K Yvonne, et al. (2012). “Adult outcome of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a controlled 16-year follow-up study”. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 73(7), 577.

Huijg, Dyi D. (under review). “ADHD women and gendered neuronormativity: A feminist and critical ADHD analysis of self-help books about and for ADHD women”

Michielsen, M., de Kruif, J. Th. C. M., Comijs, H. C., et al. (2015). “The Burden of ADHD in Older Adults: A Qualitative Study”. Journal of Attention Disorders, 22(6), 591-600.

Oliver, Mike. (1990). “The individual and social models of disability”. Paper presented at the Joint Workshop of the Living Options Group and the Research Unit of the Royal College of Physicians.

Pond, Emily, Fowler, Ken, & Hesson, Jacqueline. (2019). “The Influence of Socioeconomic Status on Psychological Distress in Canadian Adults With ADD/ADHD”. Journal of Attention Disorders, 23(9), 940-948.

Young, Susan, Asherson, Philip, Lloyd, Tony, et al. (2021). “Failure of healthcare provision for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in the United Kingdom: A consensus statement”. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12(324), 1-16.

Footnotes

[1] The lead organiser (Dyi Huijg) has drawn this conclusion in her capacity as the organiser of the Intersectional Neurodiversity Reading Group (start July 2019), and on the basis of her own postdoc research on ADHD women and intersectional anti-ADHD injustice.

[2] Contributors are invited to attend the Reading Group, which centres critical and intersectional conversations on ADHD between May-Dec 2022.

[3] You will not prepare comments/questions for the papers of the other panels.

[4] Critical as in ‘race critical theory’ or ‘critical autism studies’, not as in ‘gender critical’.

Posted by Dyi