Autism and Classical Myth: Getting ready to look back - and ahead

Why classical myth and autism?

Why classical myth and autism?

The idea for this project started to take shape at a meeting in 2008 with a special needs teacher, who mentioned that, in her experience and those of her colleagues, autistic children often enjoy classical myth. I began to wonder why this might be the case, and whether – as a classicist who researches, and loves, classical myth – there was anything I could contribute. I started this blog to report on my progress which was often sporadic until the launch of the Warsaw-based European Research Council-funded project Our Mythical Childhood (2016-22) to trace the role of classics in children’s culture.

My key contribution to the project is an exploration of classics in autistic children’s culture, above all by producing myth-themed activities for autistic children. This blog shares my progress, often along Herculean paths, including to a book of lessons for autistic children focusing on the Choice of Hercules between two very different paths in life. The image above, illustrating the homepage of this blog, is one of the drawings by Steve K. Simons, the book's illustrator, of a chimneypiece panel in a neoclassical villa at Roehampton in South West London. The lessons centre on this panel.

Monday 29 May 2023

Getting ready to look back - and ahead - by sharing five publication covers

I have just been drafting a blog posting that reflects on my writing processes and on my PhD supervisor. It reflects, too, on fellow alumni from where I did my BA before that. These fellow alumni are, like me, academics with interests that include autism.

I am not ready yet to write up the posting including because I have not yet worked out how to conclude it. For now though - including to help tie me in to completing it - here are the covers of five publications discussed in the posting:

Revisiting Rape in Antiquity cover Sites of Resistance issue cover image Front Cover The Original Learning Approach