Book launch & talk for Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies (2nd ed - 2026) with Bren LeFrancois & Idil Abdillahi.

Free public lecture - Taking up the Discussion: Black Studies-Mad Studies - as part of the UK book launch tour for the second edition of Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies (2026) (https://canadianscholars.ca/book/mad-matters-second-edition/) with co-editors Dr Idil Abdillahi (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada) (https://www.torontomu.ca/disability-studies/people/faculty/idil-abdillahi/) and Professor Bren LeFrancois (Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada) (https://www.mun.ca/socialwork/about-us/our-people/faculty/dr-brenda-lefrancois/).

The talk from 13:00-14:30 will involve:

brief introduction to Mad Studies at Northumbria with representatives from the teaching team who run a mad studies module in collaboration with ReCoCo (a mental health recovery college in Newcastle) (https://www.recoverycoco.com/)

joint talk by two of the book's editors - Dr Idil Abdillahi (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada) (https://www.torontomu.ca/disability-studies/people/faculty/idil-abdillahi/) and Professor Bren LeFrancois (Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada) (https://www.mun.ca/socialwork/about-us/our-people/faculty/dr-brenda-lefrancois/) - in which they discuss Mad Studies, including the contentions and ongoing questions that emerge at the intersections of Blackness, antiBlackness and madness. The second edition of Mad Matters, and all it has to offer, will be considered in light of the colonial and imperial time we are in

post-talk discussion/Q&A chaired by Dr Órla Meadhbh Murray (Northumbria University Newcastle) (https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/m/rla-meadhbh-murray/). During the Q&A we will give away one free copy of the book via raffle.

There will be a free light lunch available from 12:30-13:00 and time to mingle afterwards until 15:00.

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About the book:

Over the decade since the first edition of Mad Matters was published, Mad Studies has exploded into a new field of study across Canada and around the world. This thoroughly updated and expanded second edition continues the legacy of the groundbreaking first edition by presenting more critical voices that convey the lived experiences of psychiatrized people and which challenges dominant understandings of “mental illness.” Featuring contributions from scholars, mad activists, and psychiatric survivors, this groundbreaking collection amplifies critical perspectives on psychiatry and mental health.

This second edition features substantial updates, including revised chapters with expanded analysis of race and racism, as well as fifteen new chapters exploring topics such as anti-Blackness and Indigeneity madness. A new foreword situates the work within the evolving field of mad studies.

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This event is funded by Northumbria University Faculty of Society and Culture and organised by Órla Meadhbh Murray (https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/m/rla-meadhbh-murray/) (Sociology/Institutional Ethnography Research Group, Northumbria University Newcastle) - for more information, please email: orla.murray@northumbria.ac.uk

Description supplied by the event organiser.