Events
See Autism@Manchester events hosted at The University of Manchester, and find out when our members will be speaking at external events.
Upcoming events
Seminar: "Café Autistique"
This event aims to enhance connections and facilitate conversations between the autistic and research communities: autistic people, their friends and family members, practitioners, and researchers/academics. It aims to do this in by presenting talks on autism research to the public in a relaxed café atmosphere, which is open to the public and a community space. The café will be open throughout for drinks and snacks and there will be time before and after each speaker for you to take a break and buy refreshments.
Thursday 11th April, 6pm-9pm at the Contact Theatre, Oxford Road, Manchester.
Admission to Café Autistique is free, and you can secure your tickets by visiting our Eventbrite page.
Speakers are:
Monique Huysamen (researcher at The Manchester Metropolitan University). Monique will share findings and resources from the Supporting Autistic Adults’ Intimate Lives (SAAIL) research project. This project explored autistic people’s experiences around sex and relationships and how adult social care might do better at supporting this area of people’s lives.
Bill Davies (Professor at The University of Salford). Bill (an autistic researcher) will introduce the concept of aural diversity, starting from the observation that everyone hears differently. He will then discuss the findings of a recent Defra project focussing specifically on what we know about how autistic people differ from so-called ‘normal hearing’.
Please see the full programme for more information or contact Alexandra Sturrock atat alexandra.Sturrock@manchester.ac.uk.
Past events
Seminar: "Café Autistique”.
October 12, 2023
During the event, George Bendo will shared insights into our growing understanding of listening differences among autistic individuals. Additionally, Leneh Buckle, an advisor on the 'infamous' Spectrum 10K genetic-testing project, will talked about her personal experiences.
Seminar: "Autism, Vision and Eye care”.
Monday 10th October, 6 - 7pm
Dr Ketan Parmar
Webinar - Time & Autism: Are we asking the right questions?
Friday 23rd July 2021
Drs Daniel Poole, Luke Jones, Emma Gowen & Ellen Poliakoff
Time is fundamental to how we experience and interact with the world. Some autistic people may experience differences in how they understand and perceive time. Why any differences occur, and what they are like, is not currently understood.
At this webinar we brought together researchers, autistic people, their friends and families and professionals working with autistic people to share knowledge and consider future directions in improving understanding of time and autism. The webinar marked the end of our 3 year Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project on time perception in autism and we will be presenting our overall findings.
Webinar: Autistic people’s experience of time
Dan Poole
Tuesday 6th October 2020
Webinar: The development and piloting of EMPOWER-ASD: a post-diagnostic programme for parents of children recently diagnosed with autism
Kathy Leadbitter, Louisa Harrison, Ceri Ellis, June Gilbert and Amelia Pearson
Tuesday 13th October 2020
View a video of the talk, "The development and piloting of EMPOWER-ASD"
Webinars:
Language and communication profiles of autistic females without intellectual impairments: strengths and weaknesses and impact on life
Alex Sturrock
How the complexity and diversity of the language parents use affects young children’s language development
Sophie Langhorne
Tuesday 20th October 2020
View a video of Alex's and Sophie's talks
Narratives of 'Cognitive Estrangement' or; Fantastic Autistics and Where to Find Them
David Hartley, PhD Creative Writing
Wednesday 16th October, 4:00 – 5:00pm
Venue: Zochonis Building Lecture Theatre A, University of Manchester
Autistic identity has had a long and complex relationship with the rhetoric of science fiction; from the casual use of the phrase ‘like an alien from another planet’ to the intimation of robotic brains in the ‘wired differently’ metaphor. But autistic people have also found productive and affirming narratives in the fantastical genres, not least in the identification of ‘autistic-ish’ heroes such as Spock from Star Trek and The Doctor from Doctor Who.
What alternative vision of autistic identity can the fantastical genres help explore? And how might this intersection of neurodifference and genre encourage a reconfiguration in the narratives of both? This talk will explore the ‘estrangement’ of autism within the intersections of neurodivergent writings, science-fiction theory and the encounters explored in my own creative practice.
Participatory autism research: opportunities and challenges
Dr Laura Crane, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), University College London
Thursday 4th April, 6:00 – 7:00pm
Venue: The Fossils Gallery (just under Stan the T-Rex!) on the Ground Floor of The Manchester Museum, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13 9PL
In the autism research field, there is growing recognition of the need to conduct research 'with', as opposed to 'on', 'about' or 'for', autistic people and their families (see Pellicano, Charman & Dinsmore, 2014). Despite calls for greater autistic participation in research (e.g., Fletcher-Watson et al., 2018), there is much uncertainty regarding the practicalities and utility of such an approach. In this talk, Laura will discuss participatory autism research, focusing specifically on a co-produced research project examining mental health in young autistic people. She will also discuss some of the perceived challenges of participatory working in the autism field, based on interview data collected from established and early career autism researchers in the UK.
View a video of the talk (If you can’t see the subtitles, you can access them in settings when you hover over the video with the mouse.)
Transcript of Dr Laura Crane's talk
Autism in Women and Girls
Seminar and Workshop: Postcards from an Aspie World
Hayden Larder, Helen Larder and Dan Redfearn
Mon 26th March 2018, 10:00am – 12:30pm (Registration from 9:30am)
Kanaris Lecture Theatre, The Manchester Museum
Hayden, Helen and Dan will give a presentation about their autism training resource for practitioners.
View: Autism in Women and Girls PDF for more information
Seminar and Poster Session: Uncovering Hidden Autism in Females
Hannah Belcher (Anglia Ruskin)
Monday 21st May 2018, 1:00 - 3:30pm (Registration from 12:30pm)
Kanaris Lecture Theatre, The Manchester Museum
Females with autism face longer waiting times to receive their diagnosis and many are not identified at all. Increased social motivation and social mimicking strategies are thought to be behind these difficulties in identification. This talk, given by Hannah Belcher who herself is diagnosed with autism, will discuss evidence supporting this theory and speculate on what research needs to uncover to improve the lives of females affected by autism
View: Autism in Women and Girls PDF for more information
23 November 2016, The University of Manchester
School can be a challenging place for many young autistic people, as they are more likely than their peers to be excluded, experience bullying, and develop mental health problems. Professor Neil Humphrey explored why this is the case, and what can be done about it.
2 July 2016
Dr Emma Gowen gave a talk titled Building bridges: creating partnerships between autistic and research communities.
Investigating the role of microRNAs in autism susceptibility
17 February 2016, The University of Manchester
PhD student Thomas Bleazard talked about his project to investigate the role of microRNA regulatory molecules, genes that work by controlling other genes inside cells rather than by building or doing things themselves, in autism susceptibility.