About this Event
Join us for a group reading session of passages from McGuire’s 2016 book War on Autism: On the Cultural Logic of Normative Violence, which examines autism as a historically specific and power-laden cultural phenomenon that has much to teach about the social organization of neoliberal western modernity. McGuire discusses how in the field of autism advocacy, autism often appears as an abbreviation, its multiple meanings distilled to various “red flag” warnings in awareness campaigns, bulleted biomedical facts in information pamphlets, or worrisome statistics in policy reports. She analyzes the relationships between these fragmentary enactments of autism and traces their continuities to reveal an underlying, powerful, and ubiquitous logic of violence that casts autism as a pathological threat that advocacy must work to eliminate. No advance reading is required.
Reader-in-Residence programming
Throughout Fall 2025 a lunchtime Reader-in-Residence series on UTM campus will offer group readings, discussions, and embodied activities led by guest contributors whose ethical, political, and social commitments complement the exhibition. Centring the practices of UofT faculty and graduate students, these sessions offer multimodal responses to neurodiverse cultures, aesthetics, and modes of perception.
Each session will be held in the exhibition’s Co-Creation Studio, located in the e|gallery, CCT Building lower level.
Snacks and refreshments will be provided.
Directions
Click here for a detailed campus map and here for directions to UTM.
Accessibility
The e|gallery is located on the ground floor of the CCT Building and is accessible to people who use mobility devices, with doorways measuring over 32” wide. All entrances at ground floor level are equipped with power-assisted doors. The e|gallery is accessible via the east entrance (adjacent to parking lot 9) at ground level, or by elevator from the main floor entrance and at parking garage levels 1, 3, and 5. Accessible multi-user gendered washrooms are located at ground level, and accessible multi-user all-gender washrooms are located on the third floor of the CCT Building.
About STIM CINEMA
STIM CINEMA is an exhibition and moving image installation that explores neurodivergent perception, agency, and communication in an era increasingly defined by misinformation, polarization, and systemic distrust.
Curated by Christine Shaw, the exhibition features work by The Neurocultures Collective (Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Sam Shown-Ahearn, Robin Elliot-Knowles, Lucy Walker), a group of neurodivergent artists in collaboration with artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood.
At its core, the project asks: What does it mean to trust one’s own perception when dominant narratives privilege certain ways of sensing, knowing, and being? How do neurodivergent experiences of movement, repetition, and sensory engagement challenge dystopian conditions of control, standardization, and hypersynchronization?
Comprised of tactile zoetropes, a three-screen film installation, and a studio featuring the collective’s collaborative process, STIM CINEMA critically intervenes in the dystopian conditions where difference is pathologized, sensory processing is disciplined, and trust in institutions is eroded. Instead of reinforcing logics of neurotypicality, this project explores other linguistic and embodied possibilities for being in relation—where trust is built through sensory connection, shared experience, and an ethics of care.
To learn more about STIM CINEMA and the contributors, visit the .
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
e| gallery, Lower level Communication Culture & Technology Building, 1800 Middle Road, Mississauga, Canada
CAD 0.00
