Catherine Tan, Assistant Professor of Sociology, is author of Spaces on the Spectrum: How Autism Movements Resist Experts and Create Knowledge, newly published by Columbia University Press (January 2024). Spaces on the Spectrum takes on the autistic rights and alternative biomedical movements, which approach autism either as a difference to be accepted or as a medical condition to be treated.

“Written with generosity and poise, meticulously researched, this is a reflective and insightful analysis of how controversies over knowledge, expertise, and identity are intertwined,” observes Gil Eyal, coauthor of The Autism Matrix. Following the autistic rights and alternative biomedical movements in their struggle toward legitimacy and fair representation of the autistic, Tan forges a fresh view on the importance of social movements to the establishment of knowledge that challenges the dominant narrative. “With engaging data, compelling stories, and compassionate insight, Tan brings us into the competing and complementary worlds of autism advocacy,” writes Jennifer A. Reich, author of Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines. Tan’s work is “an important contribution that shows…how calls for sympathy and respect can place well-intentioned people who care deeply about the same issue at odds.”