Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Religious Studies

Second Department

Anthropology

Reader 1

Seo Young Park

Reader 2

Luis Sales

Reader 3

Esther Chung-Kim

Abstract

This thesis attempts to broaden the range of literature about how sociocultural environments influence autistic behavior through an assessment of autistic adults’ religious narratives concerning different varieties of Christian and Jewish religious space in the United States. I conclude that low-support needs autistic individuals in the United States represented by my interviewees actively seek to enter, leave, and assess their participation in Christian and Jewish space through reasonings and stories arguably as diverse as their non-autistic counterparts, despite frequent generalizations from cognitive science and religion scholars alike. Like many non-autistics, they are often drawn to religious beliefs and communities as a means of relief from the daily pressures of the secular world. In the autistic-specific context my interviewees relayed, this primarily includes relief from confusing and restrictive social interaction rules, comfort amidst frequent sensory and emotional overload, and - for members of politicized ethnic groups - relief from the multiple burdens of assimilation into a white, culturally Protestant and neurotypical-dominant society. However, autistic hypersensitivity also means that they may more quickly leave religious communities when these relief needs are not met.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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