Camouflaging – also known as masking – has recently been described as a set of actions and strategies more or less consciously adopted by some autistic people to navigate the neurotypical social world. The nature of the phenomenon is still insufficiently understood, along with its significance in autism and other mental conditions – such as BPD – as well as its occurrence in social relationships among neurotypicals. This includes varieties of camouflaging in everyday phenomena of impression management, passing, intimate relationships, and community life. Some important themes that we’d like to explore include authenticity, identity, familiarity, and trust in connection with camouflaging. Our core idea is to bring together philosophical, sociological, psychological, and lived experienced perspectives from researchers and practitioners working on camouflaging, and to foster an interdisciplinary discussion on this complex and still underexplored phenomenon.

The online workshop will bring together clinical, philosophical, sociological, and lived experience perspectives from researchers and practitioners. 

This is the second edition, last year's edition was focusing on the varieties of camouflaging across different mental conditions. More information about the workshop in 2023 can be found here. 

** All times are based on Central European Summer Time (CEST) **

Day 1 - September 26, 2,00-5,00 PM (CEST):

• 2.00-2.30 PM: Joona Taipale (Jyväskylä): "To make up one’s mind"

• 2.30 -3.00 PM: Maxime Felder (Lausanne): "Enacting familiarity: a collective achievement"

• 3.00-3.30 PM: Philipp Schmidt (Heidelberg): "The dynamics of familiarity: an agentive perspective"

• 3.30-3.45 PM: Break

• 3.45-4.15 PM: Valentina Petrolini (Basque Country): "Mask or chameleon? Reframing the impact of camouflaging on mental health"

• 4.15-4.45 PM: Heidi Maibom (Basque Country & Cincinnati): "Identity and camouflaging in one case of psychopathy"

• 4.45-5.00: General discussion

Day 2 - September 27, 2,00-5,00 PM (CEST):

• 2.00-2.30 PM: Emily Hughes (York): "Rethinking the limits of familiarity and unfamiliarity in autism"

• 2.30 -3.00 PM: Ruby Hake (Birmingham): "Autistic Trans camouflaging and the self" 

• 3.00-3.30 PM: Rachel Cullen (Kent): "Masking/camouflaging & intersectionality"

• 3.30-3.45 PM: Break

• 3.45 -4.15 PM: Dylan Trigg (Vienna): "Enacting familiarity: nostalgia as camouflaging"

• 4.15 -4.45 PM: Joel Krueger & Zamir Kadodia (Exeter): “Epistemic injustice and the need to ‘neurodiversify’ social imagination".

• 4.45-5.00: General discussion