Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understanding Increasing Diagnostic Rates of Autism in Children

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Autism diagnosis is increasing worldwide. This ethnographic study of the diagnosis and care of autistic children in China, a country in which the emphasis since the 1980s has been on producing small numbers of high quality children, and in which children are valued for the care they will be able to offer their parents as adults, asks how a western medical category is taken up and changed in a very different social setting. Bringing together anthropological and STS concepts and literatures, this study is innovative in its focus on families, organizations and the state in China. This research will result in a dissertation and the production of a scholar well-trained in Chinese language and society. A better understanding of how the Chinese conceptualize and treat autism will provide a worthwhile comparison to the more "biological" understanding of autism prevalent in the United States and could provide a useful model for patient advocates in the US working to reduce the stigma of autism.