19552 GW Mag 26_Final_singles - Flipbook - Page 36
From Stigma to Science and Support:
Anthropology’s Grinker
Authors Autism Narrative
As a researcher, educator and father, Anthropology Professor
Roy Richard Grinker shares his personal and professional
journey through autism’s changing landscape.
WHETHER IN THE CLASSROOM OR IN PRIVATE, AFTER
others have left, Professor of Anthropology and International
Affairs Roy Richard Grinker has grown used to students
telling him they identify as being on the autism spectrum.
And the remarkable part about their revelations, he said,
is that they no longer seem remarkable at all.
“How did we get to this place—this good and amazing
place—where students can feel comfortable about discussing
their various challenges without any fear of being judged?”
he said. “Where a student can come to a professor and say
‘I have autism’ and feel comfortable with that? That is an
extraordinary achievement.”
That shift—away from stigma and toward an era of
support and scientific understanding—is at the heart of
Grinker’s work and his life.
As an anthropologist, he researches and teaches the
cross-cultural history of mental health. As an author, he’s
charted the evolving attitudes toward mental illness in
books such as Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of
Autism and Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the
Stigma of Mental Illness.
And as a father, he’s followed his daughter Isabel’s own
autism journey. Diagnosed in 1994, Isabel, now 33, is often
featured in Grinker’s work. In books, op-eds and lectures,
he’s celebrated the dimensions of her character—from her
sense of humor and her jigsaw puzzle mastery to her
passionate care for animals.
“We are at a moment when we can see that autism isn’t just
about challenges,” Grinker said. “It’s also about possibilities.”
Indeed, Grinker frames an autism landscape that rejects
spurious science and easy answers to complex neurological
questions. And he spotlights a record of accomplishments
that includes combatting stigma and advancing sweeping
research strides.
36 | www.columbian.gwu.edu
“Science has not failed,” Grinker emphasized. “One thing
that’s often missed when you see autism in political discourse
is the extraordinary growth of science and therapies. We
have so much more knowledge about it and in so many
different areas. When we talk about autism as a crisis, we
sometimes forget how far we’ve come.”
In an interview, Grinker reflected on the changing cultural
conversation around autism and the progress he’s seen
across the world, inside his classroom and in his own home.
Q: Where are we now in terms of the public’s
perception of autism? Are we in a positive place?
A: We are at a point where autism has become a household
word, where the diagnosis has become increasingly used and
where autism is so much less stigmatizing than it used to be.
As a researcher, I’m interested in stigma and how
eliminating stigma makes things better. Invisibility makes
things worse. Visibility makes things better.
We are talking about autism more and more. There are
autism-friendly concerts and autism-friendly movie nights.
Public knowledge about autism has increased dramatically.
We are making it possible for people with autism to have
more social support and more understanding—not just in
their families, but in society at large, and in countries
throughout the world.
