“Mapping Autism Service Inequities through Interdisciplinary Research”

Jennifer Singh, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of History and Sociology
Director of Graduate Studies
Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
Georgia Tech

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School of This talk will discuss various interdisciplinary projects that investigate and address autism service inequities, including a three year ethnography that examined the quality of care in an autism clinic at Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital that provides services to children who are mainly from low-income families, the development of a digital autism services map designed to identify a range of services in Georgia and expose the unequal distribution of services based on social vulnerabilities, and a model of structural racism in autism research and practice that considers how science, public policy, and cultural representation shape autism disparities. These projects involved multiple disciplinary and institutional partners, which expanded the research questions, methodologies, and outcomes that address autism service inequities.

Jennifer S. Singh is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of History and Sociology in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech. She has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, San Francisco and specializes in medical sociology and science and technology studies. Her research investigates the intersections of genetics, health, and society, which draws on her experiences of working in the biotechnology industry in molecular biology and as a public health researcher at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Her book, Multiple Autisms: Spectrums of Advocacy and Genomic Science, explores a range of perspectives from scientists, activists, parents, and people living with autism surrounding the rise and implementation of autism genetics research. She is also the Co-Founder and Director of Break the Cycle (BTC) of Autism Disparities Working Group. Her current research focuses on the structural inequities in autism diagnosis and services based on race, class, and gender.