Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies

Vol. 53 No. 1 | March 2027

Call for Papers

From Neurodiversity to Neurocosmopolitanism:

Literature, Science, Politics

Guest Editor

Manuel Herrero-Puertas (National Taiwan University)

Deadline for Submissions: July 15, 2026

“Neurodiversity” signals a political and aesthetic endeavor, a collective reckoning with “the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species”—to cite Nick Walker’s strategically capacious definition. Given the breadth of cognitive styles and experiences it encompasses, the interdisciplinary field of critical neurodiversity studies has grown exponentially over the last decade. As a result, neurodivergent individuals today find it easier to cast off dehumanizing clinical labels that reduce them to a “disorder,” “syndrome,” or “deficit,” embracing instead “autistic,” “Asperger’s,” “dyslexic,” “epileptic,” and “schizophrenic” as cultural, not pathological, identities. This paradigm shift has entered literary studies and the humanities in full force, aided by mould-breaking scholars and activists Melanie Yergeau, Amanda Baggs, Julia Miele Rodas, Ralph James Savarese, Robert Chapman, and Michael Bérubé, among others.

Neurodiversity’s journey from the margins to the center of artistic production and scholarly inquiry has not been without risks. One needs to look no further than the uncanny coexistence in the current U.S. administration of Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has declared war against autism—for him, “an individual tragedy” that “destroys families” and whose allegedly epidemic proportions threaten the nation itself—and Elon Musk, who has proudly come out as (a self-diagnosed) Asperger’s and ascribed his entrepreneurial success to this particular brand of neurological difference. In the spirit of resisting both stigmatizing ableism and neoliberal co-optation, this special issue of Concentric turns to art, literature, science, and activism as overlapping realms of neurodivergent resistance and imagination.

And so we ask: what are the futures of neurodiversity, the ones we desire and the ones we wish to prevent? We invite scholarly work on the intersection of literature and neurodiversity without limitations of genre, period, language, or place. In fact, one of our provocations is that neurodivergent literary productions from previous eras prove particularly generative in ours. Understanding neurodivergent pasts helps us imagine neurodivergent futures. At the same time, asking about possible futures is our way of asking about understudied neurodivergent geographies, too. What untrodden paths for neurodiversity await outside the Anglo-American sphere that dominates the field? Here, we take Savarese’s concept of “neurocosmopolitanism” literally. If a genuine openness to other cultures (cosmopolitanism) models a genuine openness to other neurocognitive styles, then how far should we travel and how long should we linger in these non-hegemonic locales, linking up our struggle against neuronormativity with ongoing struggles against colonialism, capitalism, racism, sexism, and homophobia? Contributions examining neurodiversity’s whens, wheres, and hows are warmly welcomed. Possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

(1) The politics of neurodivergent literary form and aesthetic
(2) Neurocosmopolitanism versus nationalism
(3) Critical neurodiversity studies beyond Anglo-American frames: Global South, Transpacific, etc.
(4) Neurodiversity in translation: code-switching, interpretation, transmediality
(5) Neurodivergent poetics
(6) Neurodiversity and popular culture
(7) Neurodiversity, science, and technology
(8) Digital neurodivergent cultures (VR, AI, Second Life, etc.)
(9) Neurodivergent temporalities, crip time, non-linear narratives of growth and development
(10) Continuity and rupture between disability studies, crip theory, and critical neurodiversity studies
(11) The rise of the techno-savant and the commodification of neurodivergence
(12) Intersections of neurodiversity studies, queer theory, and gender studies
(13) Critical autism studies, autie-biographies, autistic art and activism
(14) Literary explorations of neurodivergent conditions beyond autism/Asperger’s

Please send complete papers of 6,000-10,000 words, 5–8 keywords, and a brief biography to concentric.lit@deps.ntnu.edu.tw by July 15, 2026. Manuscripts should follow the latest edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Except for footnotes, which should be single-spaced, manuscripts must be double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman. Please consult our style guide at http://www.concentric-literature.url.tw.

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Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, indexed in Arts and Humanities Citation Index, is a peer-reviewed journal published two times per year by the Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. Concentric is devoted to offering innovative perspectives on literary and cultural issues and advancing the transcultural exchange of ideas. While committed to bringing Asian-based scholarship to the world academic community, Concentric welcomes original contributions from diverse national and cultural backgrounds. In each issue of Concentric we publish groups of essays on a special topic as well as papers on more general issues. http://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/.

For submissions or general inquiries, please contact us at: concentric.lit@deps.ntnu.edu.tw.

CFP-53.1-From Neurodiversity to Neurocosmopolitanism Literature, Science, Politics