Nick Walker

Nick Walker is an American scholar, author, webcomic creator, and aikido teacher, known for contributing to the development of the neurodiversity paradigm, establishing the foundations of neuroqueer theory, and writing the essay collection Neuroqueer Heresies and the urban fantasy webcomic Weird Luck. Walker is a professor of psychology and psychedelic studies at California Institute of Integral Studies.

Early life and education

Walker grew up in a low-income housing project in New Jersey, spent portions of his young adulthood homeless, and began attending college in his thirties. He received an Associate of Arts in liberal arts from Berkeley City College and then attended California Institute of Integral Studies, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in interdisciplinary studies, a Master of Arts in counseling psychotherapy, and a Doctor of Philosophy in transformative studies.

Walker began practicing aikido at the age of 12, inspired by Samuel R. Delany's novella Babel-17. He started teaching aikido while still in his late teens, and continued to practice and teach even during periods of homelessness.

Walker teaches aikido at the Aiki Arts Center in Berkeley, California, and holds a 7th degree black belt.

In 2021, Walker published his book Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities, collecting his existing essays along with 120 pages of new material reflecting the subsequent evolution of his views.

Paratheatrical research From 1996 through 2015, Walker was a core member of Paratheatrical Research, a Jungian-informed experimental physical theatre group run by director Antero Alli.

Neurodiversity paradigm Walker has been a significant contributor to the development of the neurodiversity paradigm. According to Walker, the neurodiversity paradigm has three foundational principles:

"Neurodiversity—the diversity among minds—is a natural, healthy, and valuable form of human diversity."

Neuroqueer theory Walker originally coined the term neuroqueer in 2008, in a paper written for a graduate course in somatic psychology. The term was intended to encapsulate Walker's insight that neuronormativity was socially constructed and instilled like heteronormativity, and that "neuronormativity and heteronormativity are fundamentally entwined with one another, and therefore any significant queering of neuronormativity is also inevitably a queering of heteronormativity" and vice versa. In his writings on neurodiversity he has noted that long-term alterations in cognitive functioning induced by "heavy usage of psychedelic drugs" can be considered a form of acquired neurodivergence. The study results were published in 2018 in the Swiss journal Psychopharmacology, in an article Walker co-authored with the MAPS research team.

Walker is a principal architect and founding faculty member of the Bachelor of Science program in Psychedelic Studies at California Institute of Integral Studies, the first accredited degree program in the world to offer Psychedelic Studies as a major for undergraduates.

Walker has described himself as queer and written about exploring his femininity; He has written about being autistic and about his experiences of synesthesia.

Publications

Books written

Walker, Nick. Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities. Autonomous Press, 2021.

Books edited

Walker, Nick, and Andrew M. Reichart, eds. Spoon Knife 3: Incursions. NeuroQueer Books, 2018. Reichart, Andrew M., Dora M. Raymaker, and Nick Walker, eds. Spoon Knife 5: Liminal. NeuroQueer Books, 2021. Walker, Nick, and Mike Jung, eds. Spoon Knife 7: Transitions. NeuroQueer Books, 2023. Walker, Nick, and Phil Smith, eds. Spoon Knife 8: Smoke and Mirrors. NeuroQueer Books, 2024.

Book chapters

Walker, Nick. On Being Slippery. Towards an Archeology of the Soul, edited by Antero Alli. Vertical Pool, 2003. Walker, Nick. Throw Away the Master's Tools: Liberating Ourselves from the Pathology Paradigm. Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking, edited by Julia Bascom. Autistic Press, 2012. Walker, Nick. Foreword. Defiant, by Michael Scott Monje. Autonomous Press, 2015. Walker, Nick. This Is Autism. The Real Experts: Readings for Parents of Autistic Children, edited by Michelle Sutton. Autonomous Press, 2015. Walker, Nick. What Is Autism? The Real Experts: Readings for Parents of Autistic Children, edited by Michelle Sutton. Autonomous Press, 2015. Walker, Nick. Calvin and Clay, the Protective Manipulations of the Unconscious, and Friends of Ambiguous Ontological Status. Afterword. Imaginary Friends, by Michael Scott Monje. NeuroQueer Books, 2016. Walker, Nick. Somatics and Autistic Embodiment. Diverse Bodies, Diverse Practices: Toward an Inclusive Somatics, edited by Don Hanlon Johnson. North Atlantic Books, 2018. Walker, Nick, and Bonnie Burstow. Autistic and Mad. The Revolt Against Psychiatry: A Counterhegemonic Dialogue, edited by Bonnie Burstow. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. Walker, Nick.The Use of Transformative Somatic Practices in Processes of Collective Imagination and Collaborative Future-Shaping. Routledge Handbook for Creative Futures, edited by Gabrielle Donnelly and Alfonso Montuori. Routledge, 2023.

Articles

Walker, Nick, and Alicia Danforth. Treating Social Anxiety in Autistic Adults with MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy. MAPS Bulletin, vol. 24, no. 1, Spring 2014, pp. 7–9. Danforth, Alicia, Charles S. Grob, Christopher Struble, Allison A. Feduccia, Nick Walker, Lisa Jerome, Berra Yazar-Klosinski, and Amy Emerson. Reduction in Social Anxiety After MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy with Autistic Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study. Psychopharmacology, vol. 235, no. 11, June 2018, pp. 3137–3148. Walker, Nick, and Dora M. Raymaker. Toward a Neuroqueer Future. Autism in Adulthood, vol. 3, no. 1, March 2021, pp. 5–10. Pukki, Heta, et al. Autistic Perspectives on the Future of Clinical Autism Research. Autism in Adulthood, vol. 4, no. 2, June 2022, pp. 93–101. Natri, Heini M., Carolyn R. Chapman, Síofra Heraty, Patrick Dwyer, Nick Walker, et al. Ethical Challenges in Autism Genomics: Recommendations for Researchers. European Journal of Medical Genetics, vol. 66, no. 9, September 2023, 104810. Botha, Monique, Robert Chapman, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Steven K. Kapp, Abs Stannard Ashley, and Nick Walker. The Neurodiversity Concept Was Developed Collectively: An Overdue Correction on the Origins of Neurodiversity Theory. Autism, March 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241237871.