About dawnjoyleong

Autistic. Researcher. Multi-Artist. Embarking now on completing memoir-fantasie, "Wake Up in My Dreams", a multimedia cross-disciplinary autobiography in the form of Fantasia, in honour and loving memory of Lucy Like-a-Charm.

Inside Undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome: the high school years.

Posted on August 28, 2012 by dawnjoyleong

This is the extended version of the lecture I delivered at the School of Education, UNSW, on 14 August 2012, to an undergraduate class, at the invitation of Dr. Iva Strnadova. Some of the content are repeated from an earlier lecture. The actual lecture was deliberately shortened to make time for a more interactive question and answer session. I thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful response and rapport, and any further communication on the subject is welcome!

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Framing (Dis)Ability

Posted on August 21, 2012 by dawnjoyleong

How does one frame “disability” in special and unusual circumstances?

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The Importance of Personal Perspectives

Posted on May 28, 2012 by dawnjoyleong

The study of Autism Spectrum Condition is about humans. It is about neurodiversity in humans, who possess a wide range of human emotions, sensory and cognitive abilities or disabilities. Autism is also a very heterogenous condition, which makes research from any homogenous perspective most difficult, if not impossible.

Where, in the grand scheme of things, this current breathtakingly accelerating pace of ‘scientific research’ in Autism, does personal perspective fall? How important is personal perspective in Autism research? Continue reading →

Is Music a Language? (the seed)

Posted on May 16, 2012 by dawnjoyleong

A brief thought. I am reminded by a discussion two years ago with a well known ethnomusicologist and a brilliant music composer-theorist, about whether music is a language or not.

The ethnomusicologist said no, because there wasn’t a system of semantic meaning in musical expression.

The composer said yes, because music expresses meanings. Continue reading →

My Life with Hypersensitivity and Asperger’s

Posted on May 15, 2012 by dawnjoyleong

My Life with Hypersensitivity and Asperger’s – lecture notes from a session with professionals in special education, specifically about sensory acuity and coping with hypersensitivity. (UNSW, School of Education, 14 May 2012, 5-7pm.) Continue reading →

Laurie Anderson: musings of an admirer

Posted on January 11, 2008 by dawnjoyleong

Laurie Anderson: post-modern Renaissance woman, Houdini of artistic stereotype and 21st century iconoclast.

There is no ‘frame’ or ‘box’ in which Laurie Anderson may be contained – she is an idiosyncratic artist with a powerful, dynamic persona projected through her eclectic melting-pot of talents as visual artist, musician, poet, storyteller, dramatist, dancer, performer, philosopher, political commentator, producer, electronic gadgetry wizard and inventor. Continue reading →

Thoughts on Music and Culture – a discussion

Posted on November 2, 2007 by dawnjoyleong

Thoughts on Music and Culture: a discussion with reference to “Music and Culture: Historiographies of Disjuncture” by Philip V. Bohlman and “Music and Social Categories” by John Shepard, both essays from “The Cultural Study of Music – a critical introduction”. Continue reading →

Discussing Music and Race – a response

Posted on November 1, 2007 by dawnjoyleong

Discussing music and race – a response to the Introduction to “Music and the Racial Imagination”, edited by Ronald Radano and Philip V. Bohlman, University of Chicago Press (2001).

If modern musicology is reluctant to properly recognize or address music’s intrinsic role in human culture and history, does this imply, then, that the study of music in the context of race and racial identity is so much more taboo in the hallowed grounds of musical academia? Continue reading →

Dawn-joy Leong

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