In April 2026, Jiedi and Kate co-organized the Lorentz Center workshop “Harnessing Autistic Strengths, Identity and Wellbeing” together with Jeroen Dewinter (Tilburg University), Juliette Gudknecht (University of Portsmouth), and Iliana Magiati (The University of Western Australia).
Jiedi, Kate, which field(s) of research do you work in?
Jiedi: I've been working in autism research for a long time, mostly working on strengths-based approaches to support autistic children and young people and their families, and adapting mental health interventions to support autistic young people accessing mental health support. One of my current research focuses is to support autistic young people to identify what things are valuable to them that give them a sense of autonomy in everyday life. How can the systems around them—family systems, education systems, clinical systems—support them in realizing what those strengths and qualities might be?
Kate: I'm a clinical psychologist and associate professor at University College London. My main strand of research is about autistic social identity: in other words, how autistic people feel about belonging to the autistic community and how that can support better wellbeing and mental health. This got me thinking about not just reducing mental health problems in autistic people, but also about promoting wellbeing, which I think is where mine and Jiedi's interests meet.
How did you get the idea of organizing a workshop at the Lorentz Center and what was it about?
Jiedi: I was interested in how a lot of the work we do and the theoretical frameworks we think with in autism research come from a Western lens of psychology. I grew up as a child in China, then moved to the UK, so I've always been very interested in cross-cultural perspectives on how we view individual differences. I noticed that a lot of the neurodiversity concepts that are taken for granted in everyday conversation in autism psychology in the UK are not the norm back in China. So, I wanted to create a space to bring together different academics, but also clinicians, practitioners, and other interest groups from different parts of the world together to think about these cultural perspectives on autism: I viewed the workshop mostly as a learning opportunity. Kate and I have known each other for a long time since I was doing my PhD in Bath and she has been incredibly supportive in every step of the way.
Kate: We regularly go to big international autism conferences, but it is such a wide-ranging discipline, and the research is often quite biological, which isn't necessarily focused on autistic people's daily lives and wellbeing. So, it felt exciting to have an opportunity where we could bring together researchers who are very diverse in terms of nationality and discipline, but very much aligned in terms of focusing on the autistic experience: collaborating with the community rather than doing research about them. The workshop felt like a unique opportunity; at conferences, conversations tend to be quite fleeting, so to have the amount of time that we did, and the depth of the cultural exchanges that the workshop facilitated was just incredible. I was really motivated to help Jiedi make that possible.
What did the workshop week look like?
Jiedi: We listened to our participants’ needs throughout the week, which is particularly important given the group that we had: we created anonymous feedback forms for participants to complete at the end of every day. We were very much thinking on our feet the whole week to account for people's energy levels and to make sure they were comfortable. We also wanted to leave some space to co-produce our position paper together with the group. But that did mean that a constant struggle during the week was this balancing of flexibility and providing clarity and certainty around how things would work out, because we all know that structure is very important. So, we had to think about program changes during the week to make sure that people didn't feel overwhelmed and felt like they could participate fully—we got there in the end!
Kate: I think that speaks to how much people were engaged and that the group really wanted to hear each other's ideas, which was amazing. I think the actual environment was good for a group of people with different sensory needs as well: the natural light, having good seating, having small breakout spaces and the opportunity to make those more private with magic paper; having a break room where you can always get yourself a drink. Those things just make a really big difference.
Were there moments during the workshop that stood out or surprised you?
Jiedi: I think we initially wanted to think about a consensus view of what ‘wellbeing’ looks like across different cultures. And we were really challenged by the Lorentz Centre to think about how meaningful is it to reach a consensus? Throughout the week it was so evident that people can agree to disagree: we all agreed that there are some things that we all hold and value, and about the way you go about supporting autistic people in their autonomy, in fostering that positive identity and recognizing their strength. But the means to do that within your cultural context might look very different. And that's totally okay because some societies are not currently set up in a way where you can openly discuss these things because of stigma and negative perceptions. So, I think it's important to recognize where different people are at, and how we can support each other, and it's okay to not land on one unanimous perspective that we all share because that doesn't do the work that we all do any justice. It's very easy for things to get a little bit abstract and theoretical, but hearing examples of good practice of what community-led organizations are doing on the ground in Europe and Southeast Asia really grounded the conversation: what resources and opportunities are available to people on the ground and what can we do to either emulate their experiences or support them in a way that works in their cultural context?
Kate: It’s indeed always a work in progress when you have so many different people with different experiences from different contexts in a room together: when you have such diverse perspectives, it is inevitable that some people at times will feel that their perspective or way of thinking isn't being represented at that time. And I think it's about trying to create a space which is welcoming and supportive enough that everyone feels safe to talk to one another about their differences of opinion. But that's never perfect: I think there will have been times when people felt conversations were going in directions that they really disagreed with. But that’s where the richness comes from, that’s when you can move in different directions and not just keep along the same train tracks. So, I guess some discomfort is inevitable, even though we were trying to reduce that as much as possible.
Are you proud of the workshop?
Jiedi: I do feel proud! I joked with my colleague the other day that I would get the workshop poster framed and put it next to my wedding photo. I feel like it's one of the proudest moments of my career to bring this group of people together!
Kate: Absolutely. It's a good feeling to have brought together the group that we did: having such incredible people together, you just don't really have to do much, and you get back so many good ideas. And it's lovely to think of all the work that might happen that we won't have anything to do with, but which will have been ignited through that event—that’s really exciting!
Kate Cooper (l) and Jiedi Lei (r)
Interview written and edited by Glyn Muitjens
