Shane Kingston Cynamon

My name is Shane Kingston Cynamon. I am a fourth year PhD Candidate in the sociocultural wing of the anthropology department at UC Davis. My doctoral research focuses on how disabilities are medicalized within society, as well as how students with disabilities navigate the K-12 system as well as how they and their peers, teachers, and staff perceive the condition within the context of the larger classroom. My dissertation work involves observing and conducting interviews at different schools for a semester long period. During Phase 1, I am in Winters from August - December of 2025, observing special education classrooms at Waggoner Elementary on Monday and Tuesday and Winters Middle School on Wednesday and Thursday. In Phase 2 which lasts between January - June of 2026, I will be at Oak Hill School in San Anselmo on Monday and Tuesday, which is a private school that educates students who are neurodivergent from Kindergarten - 12th Grade as well as having adult support programs, and on Wednesday and Thursday I will be at Peregrine School in Davis which is a private school with curriculum centered around outdoor education. I will take note of how students with autism learn within a range of classroom settings, as well as how they interact with their peers within the context of the school setting. I will also conduct interviews with teachers and staff in Phase 1 and Phase 2, while expanding interviews to include adult students in Phase 2, to learn what it means to educate and support students with autism in the case of teachers and staff, or what it means to be a student on the autism spectrum from the perspective of adult students.