What is Mad Studies?
The International Mad Studies Journal defines it like this:
“Mad Studies is a field that explores the experience, history, politics, culture, and discourses of us, psychiatric survivors, consumers, ex-patients, people who are disabled, or otherwise labelled mentally ill.”
Mad Insight owes its existence to what was the first postgraduate qualification in Mad Studies in the world: we met as students on the MSc Mad Studies programme at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. This course was begun in 2020 and unfortunately the QMU administration cut short its support for the programme a mere three years later. Student progression is being honoured however there is no longer any intake of new students and the course offerings are winding down.
There isn’t concensus among mad activists about the role of Mad Studies: some feel that academia – with its hierarchies and barriers to substantial inclusion – is the wrong place to advance our cause, and that it belongs in the community rather than in an ivory tower. Others feel that academia assists the mad movement by encouraging and developing knowledge and discourse around the relevant issues.