Common Experience hosts author, autism advocate Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin, one of the most accomplished and well-known adults with autism in the world, will speak at Texas State University on March 2 as part of the Common Experience Insight Series.

Grandin will speak on "The World Needs ALL Kinds of Minds" at 6:30 p.m. in the LBJ Student Center Ballroom. A book sale and signing will follow. The event is free and open to the public, but advanced tickets are required. Tickets can be reserved by visiting go.txstate.edu/jtd.

Grandin was nonverbal until nearly four years of age. Through the love and support of her family and teachers, she was able to attend school despite being teased and bullied. Inspired by her science teacher, she embarked on a career in science studying animal husbandry, earning her doctorate in animal sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989.

At the age of 18, she invented the “squeeze box” as a way of coping with extreme anxiety. Grandin’s books about her interior life as an autistic person have increased the world's understanding of the condition with personal immediacy. She is now one the most visible and leading advocates for individuals with autism.

Grandin’s life was brought to the screen with the HBO full-length film Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes. Grandin has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and featured on NPR. Her popular 2010 TED Talk was titled "The World Needs ALL Kinds of Minds." She has been featured on the BBC special “The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow,” ABC's “Primetime Live” and “The Today Show.” Grandin developed her talents into a successful career as a livestock-handling equipment designer, one of very few in the world.

Grandin's current bestselling book on autism is The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger's. She also authored Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships; Animals Make Us Human; Animals in Translation; Thinking in Pictures; and Emergence: Labeled Autistic.

The event is sponsored by University Lecture Series; Common Experience; College of Liberal Arts; Department of Psychology; Department of Geography and Environmental Studies; Department of Communication Disorders; Department of Sociology; The Clinic for Autism Research, Evaluation and Support (CARES); Department of English, Department of Anthropology, Department of Philosophy, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Department of World Languages and Literature, Department of Political Science; and Department of Counseling, Leadership, Adult Education, and School Psychology (CLAS).

For more information or to request accommodations, contact Danielle McEwen at dl1120@txstate.edu or (512) 245-2265.