CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEARNING FROM MAD KNOWLEDGE

31 May 2023

Happening On 15/11/2023

THE CRITICAL VOICES CONFERENCE 2023

SECOND CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

‘CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEARNING FROM MAD KNOWLEDGE’

15 AND 16 NOVEMBER 2023

SCHOOL OF APPLIED SOCIAL STUDIES AND SCHOOL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, IRELAND

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE CRITICAL VOICES NETWORK IRELAND

Mad knowledge has been historically invalidated by academic and professional disciplines. Despite the rhetoric of ‘social inclusion’ and ‘co-production’, service users/survivors/Mad people continue to be viewed as non-credible knowers in relation to their own experiences. This is a form of injustice that renders them powerless within the systems that are meant to support them. This year’s conference provides opportunities to consider Mad knowledge and the challenges involved in learning with and from Madness and distress.  This conference will consider:

• The diversity of Mad knowledge
• The processes that marginalise Mad knowledge
• Issues of credibility and representation
• What it means to learn from Mad knowledge
• The implications of this learning for education and practice systems
• How we create environments to honour, and nurture Mad knowledge

Keynote Speakers confirmed to date (in alphabetical order):

• Lisa Archibald, Co-Director/ Training Coordinator, Intentional Peer Support and Mad Studies Student, Scotland
• Sarah Carr, Independent Mental Health and Social Care Knowledge Consultant, Survivor Researcher and ex-Academic, and Tina Coldham, Mental Health User Consultant, Trainer & Researcher, England
• Eoin Gorman, Lecturer and Programme Director, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University College Cork, Ireland
• Lykourgos Karatzaferis, Psychiatrist, co-founder of the Hearing Voices Network Athens, and another speaker to be confirmed, Greece
• Lydia Sapouna, Lecturer, School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, co-founder of the Critical Voices Network, Ireland

Call for abstracts (oral presentations/workshops) of 45 minutes’ duration related to the conference theme and outlining its aims and intentions. Please submit (in Word- 250 words max) by 18 September 2023. Please also submit a brief bio (in Word - 150 words max).

Email abstract and bio to Lydia Sapouna 

Registration details will be circulated in late September 2023.  

The Conference organisers are Lydia Sapouna, School of Applied Social Studies and Harry Gijbels (retired), School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork, Ireland.    

For more on this story contact:

Dr. Harry Gijbels

Lydia Sapouna