Details of the talk
This talk will explore and critique higher education institutions’ responses to madness. It will examine recent policy developments, such as mental health frameworks and more long-standing practices, such as mental health transfers of distressed students from universities to hospitals that employ physical (handcuffs) and chemical (pharmaceutical) restraints. As part of their final class project, which followed the tenets of project-based learning, two Mad Studies classes at Carleton University researched and explored these subjects. They developed critical responses in the shape of a maddened mental health framework and a four-part podcast series critiquing the violence of transfers. This presentation seeks to unpack these ongoing subtle and explicit forms of sanism on campuses and demonstrate, through these classroom projects, the need for alternative pedagogical approaches that prioritize student well-being and autonomy and simultaneously activate student learning for collective change.
