Speaking for Ourselves: Conversations on Life, Music, and Autism

The musical talents and affinities of autistic people are widely recognized, but few have thought to ask autistic people themselves about how they make and experience music, and why it matters them that they do. Speaking for Ourselves does just that, bringing autistic voices to the center of the conversation.

Michael Bakan is Professor of Ethnomusicology at Florida State University. His more than fifty publications include the books World Music: Traditions and Transformations and Music of Death and New Creation, as well as articles and book chapters on topics ranging from the ethnomusicology of autism to cinematic music and postmodernism. Bakan serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Ethnomusicology and as series editor for the Routledge Focus on World Music book series. As a percussionist, he has performed with John Cage, Tito Puente, Rudolf Serkin, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, and several leading gamelan groups in Bali, Indonesia.