Welcome to the RULING PASSIONS podcast. This podcast is one part of a research project with the same name which seeks to explore autistic adults' passionate interests from a socio-cultural perspective. I’m Chris Bailey, an autistic senior lecturer and researcher from Sheffield Hallam University and across a series of episodes I’ll be reflecting on aspects of autistic lived experience in relation to what are often called autistic ‘special interests’. I’ll be talking to other autistic people about their own interests, in order to illuminate the complexity and diversity of autistic culture, as a means of depathologising the discourse around autism. I am grateful to the UK Literacy Association for funding this project with a research grant, and to Sheffield Hallam University for supporting the project with a fellowship. You can find more about the project itself buy going to the website at www.rulingpassions.wordpress.com
