Autism Spectrum Disorders: Ideologies and Families in St. Louis Support Groups

Peer Editor: Danille Wallis; Faculty Mentor: Rebecca Lester This project takes an anthropological approach to autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by interrogating the historical and cultural context of ASD within families. It draws from research conducted over summer and fall of 2008 within support groups for parents of children with ASD. It addresses three main philosophies that see ASD as (1) a disability to be treated; (2) a disease to be cured; or (3) a positive “neuro-variation” to be embraced and treated only in ways that assist, not change, the individual. This thesis analyzes the presence of these philosophies in the discourse of parents in support groups, and professionals in the St. Louis field of autism. I find all three are present and often co-existing within one informant’s descriptions. Informed by these approaches, this project looks at the affect of ASD on constructions of American families. I find that ASD challenges expectations of childhood, while simultaneously emphasizing expectations of motherhood and writing out expectations of fatherhood. This work aims to de-naturalize assumptions regarding medicine and family, put different viewpoints in conversation, and serves as a pilot study for further research. These three goals ultimately may lead to new avenues of research for ASD theory and practice. From the Washington University Undergraduate Research Digest: WUURD, Volume 4, Issue 2, Spring 2009. Published by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Henry Biggs, Director of Undergraduate Research and Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences; Joy Zalis Kiefer, Undergraduate Research Coordinator, Co-editor, and Assistant Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences; Kristin Sobotka, Editor

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Ideologies and Families in St. Louis Support Groups

From the Washington University Senior Honors Thesis Abstracts (WUSHTA), Volume 1, Spring 2009. Published by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Henry Biggs, Director, Office of Undergraduate Research and Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences; E. Holly Tasker, Editor. Mentor: Rebecca Leste

Representation Matters: Race, Gender, Class, and Intersectional Representations of Autistic and Disabled Characters on Television

Media reflect and affect social understandings, beliefs, and values on many topics, including the lives of autistic and disabled people. Media analysis has garnered attention in the field of disability studies, which some scholars and activists consider a promising approach to discussing the experiences of – and for promoting social justice for – autistic people, who remain underrepresented on scripted television. Additionally, existing portrayals often rely on stereotyped representations of disabled individuals as objects of pity, objects of inspiration, or villains. Television may also serve as a primary source of public knowledge about disabled people and the concept of disability. It is therefore essential that such portrayals avoid stigma and stereotyping. We take a disability studies lens to critically analyze and compare representations of diverse people, who may sometimes be conflated in the popular imaginary, across television series about autistic characters (Atypical, The Good Doctor), those with cerebral palsy (Speechless, Special), and a character with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (Shameless). We employ an intersectional analytic framework to problematize representations of autistic and disabled people, using television, feminist, and critical disability studies literatures. We analyze how the formal structure of television storytelling can either enable or disable its characters, as well as how portrayals of disability that display a sensitivity to concerns raised by critical disability discourse do not necessarily display the same sensitivity when they intersect with marginalized experiences of gender, sexuality, race, and class.

Diabetic Retinopathy: The Role of Mitochondria in the Neural Retina and Microvascular Disease

Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a common chronic complication of diabetes mellitus and the leading cause of vision loss in the working-age population, is clinically defined as a microvascular disease that involves damage of the retinal capillaries with secondary visual impairment. While its clinical diagnosis is based on vascular pathology, DR is associated with early abnormalities in the electroretinogram, indicating alterations of the neural retina and impaired visual signaling. The pathogenesis of DR is complex and likely involves the simultaneous dysregulation of multiple metabolic and signaling pathways through the retinal neurovascular unit. There is evidence that microvascular disease in DR is caused in part by altered energetic metabolism in the neural retina and specifically from signals originating in the photoreceptors. In this review, we discuss the main pathogenic mechanisms that link alterations in neural retina bioenergetics with vascular regression in DR. We focus specifically on the recent developments related to alterations in mitochondrial metabolism including energetic substrate selection, mitochondrial function, oxidation-reduction (redox) imbalance, and oxidative stress, and critically discuss the mechanisms of these changes and their consequences on retinal function. We also acknowledge implications for emerging therapeutic approaches and future research directions to find novel mitochondria-targeted therapeutic strategies to correct bioenergetics in diabetes. We conclude that retinal bioenergetics is affected in the early stages of diabetes with consequences beyond changes in ATP content, and that maintaining mitochondrial integrity may alleviate retinal disease

Making autonomy an instrument: a pragmatist account of contextualized autonomy

Abstract Across societies, cultures, and political ideologies, autonomy is a deeply valued attribute for both flourishing individuals and communities. However, it is also the object of different visions, including among those considering autonomy a highly valued individual ability, and those emphasizing its relational nature but its sometimes-questionable value. A pragmatist orientation suggests that the concept of autonomy should be further specified (i.e., instrumentalized) beyond theory in terms of its real-world implications and usability for moral agents. Accordingly, this latter orientation leads us to present autonomy as an ability; and then to unpack it as a broader than usual composite ability constituted of the component-abilities of voluntariness, self-control, information, deliberation, authenticity, and enactment. Given that particular abilities of an agent can only be exercised in a given set of circumstances (i.e., within a situation), including relationships as well as other important contextual characteristics, the exercise of one’s autonomy is inherently contextual and should be understood as being transactional in nature. This programmatic paper presents a situated account of autonomy inspired by Dewey’s pragmatism and instrumentalism against the backdrop of more individual and relational accounts of autonomy. Using examples from health ethics, the paper then demonstrates how this thinking supports a strategy of synergetic enrichment of the concept of autonomy by which experiential and empirical knowledge about autonomy and the exercise of autonomy enriches our understanding of some of its component-abilities and thus promises to make agents more autonomous