Affective intensities and autistic misfitting: on surviving violence at school

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Metadata sources used for this reference

OpenAlex Crossref OpenCitations
Learn more about the sources used

Straus, E., Douglas, P., & Rice, C. (2025). Affective intensities and autistic misfitting: on surviving violence at school. Critical Studies in Education, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2025.2608091

Journal or book title
Critical Studies in Education
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Pages
1-19
Publication date: 28 Dec 2025 Added to AutiHub: 6 Aug 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 3 (33.3%)
  1. Elizabeth Straus *
  2. Patty Douglas
  3. Carla Rice

Abstract

This paper analyses 19 autistic individuals’ stories of school experiences in Canada drawn from the Re•Storying Autism project, which aims to challenge dominant deficit logics of autism and re-story ways of becoming and belonging in schools. In our analysis, we were struck by ubiquitous stories of relentless, dehumanizing violence and by occasional moments of belonging and care. Through the feminist materialist ontology and metaphor of (mis)fitting and feminist affect theory, we engage discursive, material, and affective dimensions of autistic school experiences of violence and belonging to challenge harmful deficit logics circulating therein and open avenues for understanding affects/effects alongside pathways for transformation. We argue that misfitting and violence in schools materializes through assemblages produced, in part, via a constellation of affects – fear, hatred, discomfort – accompanying ableist developmentalist legacies still structuring formal education systems. Our approach intervenes into feminist neomaterialist and critical autism studies, which have yet to grapple with autism and school violence. Based on this analysis combined with stories of relational and creative responses to misfitting, we consider opportunities for transgression and advocacy that can expand possibilities for affirming (neuro)diverse becomings and for remaking school practices and spaces in more relational, contextual, and ethical ways.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 08:06.

Cited references
55
With a DOI
43
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
12
8 / 55 (14.5%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 55 (7.3%)
References with detected author names
51 / 55 (92.7%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
3
Without a stable identifier
12
References with raw author names still to review
3
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
123
From DOI or external metadata
123
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
4
54 / 123 (43.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 69 / 123 (56.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
15 / 123 (12.2%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 15 / 54 (27.8%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 13 / 109 (11.9%).
  1. Fiona Kumari Campbell (2008). Refusing Able(ness): A Preliminary Conversation about Ableism . M/C Journal, 11(3). Queensland University of Technology.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5204/mcj.46 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W108028018
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  2. Ahmed S. (2004). The cultural politics of emotion . The cultural politics of emotion.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  3. Grace Trundle , Katy A. Jones , Danielle Ropar , Vincent Egan (2023). Prevalence of Victimisation in Autistic Individuals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis . Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 24(4), 2282-2296. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/15248380221093689 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4229017466
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  4. Alicia A. Lapointe (2016). Queering the Social Studies: Lessons to be Learned from Canadian Secondary School Gay-Straight Alliances . The Journal of Social Studies Research, 40(3), 205-215. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/j.jssr.2015.07.004 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1141515824
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  5. Kala Allen Omeiza (2024). Autistic & Black . John Murray Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.5040/9781839979583 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4415128405
    Crossref
  7. Katherine Runswick-Cole , Daniel Goodley (2015). Disability, Austerity and Cruel Optimism in Big Society: Resistance and “The Disability Commons” . Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 4(2), 162. University of Waterloo.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.15353/cjds.v4i2.213 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1916548937
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  8. Allan M. Andersen , J. Kiely Law , Alison R. Marvin , Paul H. Lipkin (2020). Elopement Patterns and Caregiver Strategies . Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50(6), 2053-2063. Springer Science and Business Media LLC.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1007/s10803-019-03961-x OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2918648358
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  9. Sara Ryan (2010). ‘Meltdowns’, surveillance and managing emotions; going out with children with autism . Health & Place, 16(5), 868-875. Elsevier BV.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.04.012 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2002305902
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  10. Amber Knight (2015). Democratizing Disability: Achieving Inclusion (without Assimilation) through “Participatory Parity” . Hypatia, 30(1), 97-114. Cambridge University Press (CUP).
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1111/hypa.12120 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1996550042
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  11. Alison L. Bain , Julie A. Podmore (2020). Challenging heteronormativity in suburban high schools through “surplus visibility”: Gay-Straight Alliances in the Vancouver city-region . Gender, Place & Culture, 27(9), 1223-1246. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/0966369x.2019.1618798 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2962483227
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  13. (2006). Meeting the Universe Halfway . In Meeting the Universe Halfway (pp. 39-70). Duke University Press.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv12101zq.5 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4254782955
    Crossref
  14. Margrit Shildrick (2019). Neoliberalism and Embodied Precarity . South Atlantic Quarterly, 118(3), 595-613. Duke University Press.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1215/00382876-7616175 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2966279512
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  15. Polly O. Walker (2004). Decolonizing Conflict Resolution: Addressing the Ontological Violence of Westernization . The American Indian Quarterly, 28(3), 527-549. JSTOR.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1353/aiq.2004.0108 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2034780241
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  16. Alisa Bierria (2014). Missing in Action: Violence, Power, and Discerning Agency . Hypatia, 29(1), 129-145. Cambridge University Press (CUP).
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1111/hypa.12074 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2166881783
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  17. Connor Kerns , Stephen Lankenau , Paul Shattuck , Diana L Robins , Craig J Newschaffer , Steven J Berkowitz (2022). Exploring potential sources of childhood trauma: A qualitative study with autistic adults and caregivers . Autism, 26(8), 1987-1998. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/13623613211070637 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4207076867
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  18. Margaret Price (2015). The Bodymind Problem and the Possibilities of Pain . Hypatia, 30(1), 268-284. Cambridge University Press (CUP).
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1111/hypa.12127 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2050580515
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  19. Monique Botha * (2023). Routledge international handbook of critical autism studies . Routledge international handbook of critical autism studies, 76.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  20. Sami Schalk , Jina B. Kim (2020). Integrating Race, Transforming Feminist Disability Studies . Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 46(1), 31-55. University of Chicago Press.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1086/709213 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3084200378
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  21. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (2011). Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept . Hypatia, 26(3), 591-609. Cambridge University Press (CUP).
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1111/j.1527-2001.2011.01206.x OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2053092443
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  22. Brownlow C. (2023). Routledge international handbook of critical autism studies . Routledge international handbook of critical autism studies, 20.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  23. Evadne Kelly , Dolleen Tisawii'ashii Manning , Seika Boye , Carla Rice , Dawn Owen , Sky Stonefish et al. (2021). Elements of a counter‐exhibition: Excavating and countering a Canadian history and legacy of eugenics . Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 57(1), 12-33. Wiley.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1002/jhbs.22081 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3123255238
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  25. Laura Foran Lewis , Kailey Stevens (2023). The lived experience of meltdowns for autistic adults . Autism, 27(6), 1817-1825. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/13623613221145783 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4315754207
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  26. Nirmala Erevelles (2014). Crippin’ Jim Crow: Disability, Dis-Location, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline . In Disability Incarcerated (pp. 81-99). Palgrave Macmillan US.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.1057/9781137388476_5 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2304014259
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  27. Ben Lohmeyer , Steven Threadgold (2023). Bullying affects: the affective violence and moral orders of school bullying . Critical Studies in Education, 64(5), 479-496. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2023.2193421 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4362580444
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  28. Lauren A. Phillips , Adam M. Briggs , Wayne W. Fisher , Brian D. Greer (2018). Assessing and Treating Elopement in a School Setting . TEACHING Exceptional Children, 50(6), 333-342. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/0040059918770663 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2804452230
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  29. Melanie Cunningham (2022). ‘This school is 100% not autistic friendly!’ Listening to the voices of primary-aged autistic children to understand what an autistic friendly primary school should be like . International Journal of Inclusive Education, 26(12), 1211-1225. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2020.1789767 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3041912528
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  30. Tanya Osborne (2019). Not lazy, not faking: teaching and learning experiences of university students with disabilities . Disability & Society, 34(2), 228-252. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2018.1515724 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2907385644
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  31. Douglas P. & Peters S. (2022). Decolonizing stories of autism in education. https://www.brandonu.ca/research-connection/article/decolonizing-stories-of-autism-in-education/
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  32. Jill Pluquailec (2018). Affective economies, autism, and ‘challenging behaviour’: Socio-spatial emotions in disabled children's education . Emotion, Space and Society, 29, 9-14. Elsevier BV.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/j.emospa.2018.07.004 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2883375947
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  34. Douglas P. (2022). Mad (m)others of disabled children write back through digital storytelling . Journal on Developmental Disabilities, 27(2), 1.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  35. Nicole Ineese-Nash (2020). Disability as a Colonial Construct: The Missing Discourse of Culture in Conceptualizations of Disabled Indigenous Children . Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 9(3), 28-51. University of Waterloo.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.15353/cjds.v9i3.645 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3119544673
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  36. Emma Hutchison (2016). Affective Communities in World Politics . Cambridge University Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.1017/cbo9781316154670 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4243776234
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  37. Erikson K. (1995). Trauma . Trauma, 183.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  38. Farahar C. (2023). Routledge international handbook of critical autism studies . Routledge international handbook of critical autism studies, 229.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  39. (n.d.). Fidgets and Fries. (2023 September 24). I occasionally step foot into these talks …. https://www.facebook.com/fidgetsandfries
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  40. Nick J. Fox , Pam Alldred (2022). New Materialism, Micropolitics and the Everyday Production of Gender-Related Violence . Social Sciences, 11(9), 380. MDPI AG.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.3390/socsci11090380 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4293222018
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  41. Paige Reeves , Stella L. Ng , Meghan Harris , Shanon K. Phelan (2022). The exclusionary effects of inclusion today: (re)production of disability in inclusive education settings . Disability & Society, 37(4), 612-637. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2020.1828042 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3093204229
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  43. Angeliki Mikelatou , Eugenia Arvanitis (2023). Pluralistic and equitable education in the neoliberal era: paradoxes and contradictions . International Journal of Inclusive Education, 27(14), 1611-1626. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2021.1904018 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3144652311
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  44. Nicole Ineese-Nash , Kathryn Underwood , Arlene Hache , Patty Douglas (2024). The Commodification of Care: Precarious Custodial Relationships, Disability, and Settler-Colonialism . In Disability and the Changing Contexts of Family and Personal Relationships (pp. 61-79). Emerald Publishing Limited.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.1108/s1479-354720240000015006 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4399373778
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  45. Alyson K. Spurgas (2021). Solidarity in Falling Apart . Lateral, 10(1). Cultural Studies Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.25158/l10.1.9 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3170258173
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  46. Evadne Kelly , Carla Rice (2024). 12 Pathways to Disrupt Eugenics in Higher Education . In Sites of Conscience (pp. 213-230). University of British Columbia Press.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.59962/9780774869348-015 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4396962552
    Crossref OpenAlex
  47. Karen Barad (2006). Meeting the Universe Halfway . Duke University Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv12101zq OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4243761327
    OpenAlex
  48. Kwaw-Mensah L. (2024). Black autistic experience: Existence in a society that seeks to erase us [Masters thesis]. Austin: University of Texas. https://hdl.handle.net/2152/128478
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  49. Karen Barad (2006). Meeting the Universe Halfway . Duke University Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.1215/9780822388128 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2266294403
    OpenCitations
  51. Damian Milton * (2018). Autistic Development, Trauma and Personhood: Beyond the Frame of the Neoliberal Individual . In The Palgrave Handbook of Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies (pp. 461-476). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-54446-9_29 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2767958451
    AutiHub · Autistic Autism Scholarship Project Crossref
  52. Price D. (2022). Unmasking autism . Unmasking autism.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  53. Carla Rice , Ingrid Mündel (2018). Story‐Making as Methodology: Disrupting Dominant Stories through Multimedia Storytelling . Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 55(2), 211-231. Wiley.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1111/cars.12190 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2801805260
    Crossref
  54. Williams P. J. (1991). The alchemy of race and rights . The alchemy of race and rights.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  55. Yergeau R. (2018). Authoring autism . Authoring autism.
    Type: Other
    Crossref