Ali Northcott: Artist in Residence & Honorary Researcher

Ali is CRAEโs Artist in Residence, undertaking a research and development project exploring potential links between neurodiversity and creativity, funded by the Arts Council England. As part of her residency, Ali is looking at adults with autistic traits in the Arts, focusing on those involved in body-based artist practices, such as the performing arts, dance and live art. She is especially interested in investigating how non-typical processing and sensory experience may enhance individual artistic practice and the creative process. Ali is developing new works that articulate these diverse embodied experiences to different audiences, drawing on different research practices and thinking from within the Arts and Psychology. Ali works across disciplines incorporating; performance, live art, moving image, photography, installation and choreographic practice. She creates participatory works in which the spectator is integral to the work and draws on years of embodied and somatic practice exploring sensory processing.
On the web: Twitter LinkedIn ResearchGate Google Scholar
Robyn Steward: Honorary Visiting Research Associate
Robyn Steward joined CRAE in May 2015 as a Visiting Research Associate. She is autistic and passionate about making research accessible to young people and adults, as well as helping to give young people the skills to advocate for themselves. Robynโs other research interests include the perspectives of autistic about topics which are important to them and how these perspectives can be heard by the scientific community. In February 2017, Robyn put together a survey to find out how autistic people and their families/supporters experience menstruation and education on the subject. This resulted in โThe Autism-Friendly Guide to Periodsโ, which helps autistic people understand periods better and aid families and professionals talking about these issues.
On the web: Twitter LinkedIn ResearchGate Website
Recent publications
- Kapp., S.K., Steward, R., & Crane, L.M. (2019) People should be allowed to do what they like: Autistic adultsโ views and experiences of stimming.
- Steward, R., (2019) The autism-friendly guide to periods.
- Steward, R., Crane, L.M., Roy, E.M., Remington, A. & Pellicano, E. (2018) Life is much more difficult to manage during periods: Autistic experiences of menstruation.
- Steward, R., (2017) Life as a deck of cards: A perspective on autistic femalesโ experiences.
- Bargiela, S., Steward, R., Mandy, W (2016). The experiences of late-diagnosed women with Autism Spectrum Conditions: An investigation of the female autism phenotype
- Steward, R. (2013) The independent womanโs handbook for super safe living on the autistic spectrum