Morenike Giwa Onaiwu
Biography
Morénike Giwa Onaiwu is an American activist-scholar, author, educator, and advocate whose work focuses on disability justice, human rights, accessibility, neurodiversity, and intersectional community advocacy. She founded Advocacy Without Borders, a grassroots organization focused on social justice, education, advocacy, research, training, and community engagement. She is also a research fellow at the AJ Drexel Autism Institute.
Onaiwu is a prolific writer and editor whose work includes essays, book chapters, academic publications, and edited collections. She co-edited All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism, an anthology centered on the experiences and perspectives of autistic people of color, and Sincerely, Your Autistic Child. Her writing addresses the intersections of race, disability, autism, gender, health, and social justice.
Through Advocacy Without Borders, writing, research, education, and public advocacy, Onaiwu works to increase the participation and visibility of people whose perspectives have historically been marginalized. Her work connects disability justice with broader movements for racial, gender, health, and human rights.
BQW Impact
Onaiwu contributes to Black queer community life through an intersectional approach to disability justice, neurodiversity, human rights, and community advocacy. Her work challenges frameworks that treat race, gender, disability, health, and other forms of marginalization as separate issues.
Her writing and editorial work also expand representation of Black and other racialized disabled people within autism and neurodiversity discourse. Through advocacy, scholarship, writing, and community leadership, she creates greater visibility for perspectives often excluded from conversations about disability, health, and social justice.
Notable Works
Advocacy Without Borders (2014)
Organization founded by Onaiwu focused on social justice, advocacy, education, research, training, and community engagement.
All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism (2017)
Anthology co-edited by Onaiwu, Lydia X. Z. Brown, and E. Ashkenazy featuring writing and creative work by autistic people of color.
Knowing Why: Adult-Diagnosed Autistic People on Life and Autism (2018)
Anthology featuring Onaiwu's writing about the intersections of Blackness and neurodivergence.
“A Dream Deferred” No Longer: Backstory of the First Autism and Race Anthology (2020)
Onaiwu's chapter documenting the development of All the Weight of Our Dreams.
Sincerely, Your Autistic Child (2021)
Anthology co-edited by Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Emily Paige Ballou, and Sharon DaVanport, featuring autistic perspectives on childhood, acceptance, identity, and parenting.
Learn More
Onaiwu's organization provides information about its mission, advocacy work, programs, and community initiatives.
Her organization-hosted biography documents her professional roles, writing, advocacy, and community leadership.
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network
Institutional profile documenting Onaiwu's work in disability justice, neurodiversity, advocacy, and community leadership.
WorldCat provides bibliographic information for the anthology co-edited by Onaiwu.