Mobilizing Mad Art in the Neoliberal University

A Literature Review of Mad Studies as Critical Pedagogy: What is Mad Studies, and How Does it Implicate the Education of Adults?

“…Sixteen articles were sourced in the five Mad Studies journals, including: three papers in “ Intersectionalities” (Aubrecht, 2016; Meerai et al, 2016; Poole et al, 2012); two in DSQ (Dalke & Mullaney, 2014; Wolframe, 2013); three in D&S (de Bie, 2019; Hawkes, 2019; Newman et al, 2019); one in Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies (Reid et al, 2019); and two in the Journal of Ethics in Mental Health (O’Donnell et al, 2019); and four articles in NHAEHRD (Castrodale, 2019; Procknow, 2017; 2019a; Reaume, 2019). Fifteen articles were sourced from journals not noted in TMU’s resource guide covering mad matters apropos to AE, including: CJSAE (Castrodale, 2017a); Curriculum Inquiry (Snyder et al, 2019); Qualitative Inquiry (Castrodale, 2017b); Punishment and Society (Adams & Erevelles, 2017); Journal of Medical Humanities (de Bie, 2021; Hawkes, 2018); Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology (Kalathil & Jones, 2016); Journal of Progressive Human Services (MacPhee & Norrad, 2022; Reid & Poole, 2013); Teaching in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives (de Bie, 2020); Knots: An Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies (Tavares, 2020); Communication Education (Willer et al, 2021); International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (Procknow, 2019b); Social Inclusion (Carette et al, 2018); and the Journal of Lesbian Studies (Kafai, 2021).…”

“…For two decades, two Schools of Disability Studies have offered Mad People’s History courses (Poole & Grant, 2018). These history courses inspired course electives entitled “The History of Madness” (Landry & Church, 2016; Poole & Grant, 2018; Reid et al, 2019; Reville, 2021) or undergraduate courses on “Critical Approaches to Mental Health and Madness” (Poole et al, 2012; Reid & Poole, 2013) co-created alongside madvocates which utilized Mad Matters (2013) as its core textbook (Poole & Grant, 2018). While these history courses have been “convincing on the bottom line,” they “[were] more vulnerable to budget cuts than [the program’s] core curriculum” (Church, 2015, p. 265).…”

“…Mad Studies courses critique public anti-stigma poster campaigns (Reid et al, 2019). Campaigns like Canada’s “Bell Let’s Talk” welcome only stories that fit snugly into their sanitized views on mental health and mental ill-health that rarely, if at all, shine the spotlight on the stigmatization of voice-hearing or schizophrenic states (MacPhee & Norrad, 2022).…”

“…The practice of using mad art has gained prominence in the neoliberal university; however, its contextualization or use seldom sunders mad artmaking from its psychiatric use as a “biopolitical tool” in carceral enclosures to probe and judge the mentalities of mad folk (Reid et al, 2019, p. 258). Students come to a better understanding of Mad Studies by engaging with the accounts of madness the artwork stories and crafting their own works of art supportive of mad activism (Reid et al, 2019). Differently, one author discusses grading an anonymized student’s essay on order and disorder in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (Hawkes, 2018)—a poem depicting breakdown.…”

“…The bulwark of teaching faculties helming Mad Studies pedagogy, as identified in this review, were survivors (Kalathil from Kalathil & Jones (2016)), mad-identified lecturers (Armstrong & LeFrançois, 2021 (both mad); de Bie, 2019; 2020; Poole et al, 2012; Reid & Poole, 2013; Reville, 2013; 2021; Landry of Landry & Church, 2016; Kafai, 2021; some mad in Snyder et al, 2019; three authors of Reid et al, 2019 identify as mad) who apply inclusive teaching practices to their course instruction (Landry & Church, 2016). Even when PhDs penetrate the “padded ceiling” and matriculate into non-tenure track instructorships (Faulkner, 2017), the academy’s environment proves disabling (Armstrong & LeFrançois, 2021).…”