The Autism Society of Minnesota will be hosting the 2007 Minnesota State Autism Conference on May 2-5, 2007 in Minneapolis.  (It looks like the deadline for registration has already passed, but I'm sure there is no hurt in contacting AuSM if you really want to go.)

Highlights of the conference will be talks given by Temple Grandin, Martha Herbert and Nick Dubin.  The Keynote Address will be given by Roy Richard Grinker who is a friend of BlogCadre contributor and autism advocate, Kristina Chew.

Roy Richard Grinker is the Professor of Anthropology and Director at George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research, and a father to a child with autism.  He recently had a book published, Unstrange Minds, where he discusses a controversial idea.

Unstrange Minds begins with Roy Richard Grinker's personal story: his family's battles with the school system, the rare orchid his daughter Isabel plucked at the Smithsonian, and a day in Monet's garden that changed Isabel forever. But because Grinker is an anthropologist as well as a father, Unstrange Minds takes us across the globe-to South Korea, South Africa, Peru, and India. 

Based on his work in the United States and abroad, Unstrange Minds presents the controversial idea that there is no evidence for an autism epidemic. Instead, the high rates of prevalence and diagnosis today are instead evidence that scientists are finally counting cases correctly. And this is a good thing, not only for the US but for the world, including cultures that have only just begun to learn about autism.

Unstrange Minds shows how the shift in how we view and count autism is part of a set of broader shifts taking place in societies throughout the world. The growth of child psychiatry, the decline of psychoanalysis, the internet, the rise of international advocacy organizations, greater public sensitivity to children's educational problems, and changes in public policies have together changed the way autism is diagnosed and defined.

If you are unable to see Grinker speak at the conference he will be on Minnesota Public Radio - Midmorning on May 3 and then off to Seattle for a few appearances.

{Thanks, Kristina!)