Reading Radical Voices Together: Community Engagement with Mad and Crip Texts

Course - Reading Radical Voices Together: Community Engagement with Mad and Crip Texts

Course duration: 10 weeks

Course Instructor Dr. Amy Panton

Note: This is a course for the community and all are welcome, whether you've never read any Mad and Crip texts before, or you have read all of them!

In this course we will read a selection of radical Mad and Crip texts together and discuss them in community. The course will be "seminar style" and will offer lots of space to discuss important themes, process together and reflect on the books. No previous knowledge of Mad and Crip Studies are needed, as Amy will lay out key history and foundational concepts related to the movements throughout the course. All are welcome!

Each week there will be a lecture component that will act as a conversation partner with the text we are reading. We will spend time talking about the books and ways they resonate with our lived experience, challenge our thinking and push boundaries. We will also discuss how the books align with and/or diverge from our spiritual worldviews. There will also be guest speakers from the community that will offer additional insights and enrich the conversation. Students express their feelings and process their thoughts about the course in creative ways such as writing, journal entries, poetry, art, or other media.

Required books:

You will need to purchase the three books for this course from an online retailer of your choice. For accessibility reasons, all are available in audiobook form, as e-books, and in paperback.

1. Alice Wong Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care and Desire

2. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice.

3. Micha Frazer-Carroll Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health

Course Outcomes:

1. Engage Critically: Students will critically analyze and interpret texts within the field of Mad and Crip studies, identifying key themes, arguments and perspectives. Students will challenge conventional narratives around disability and mental health and propose life-giving alternatives.

2. Contextual Awareness: Students will consider the historical and cultural contexts that shape and are shaped by Mad and Crip discourses. Students will recognize the intersections with other critical areas of scholarship such as gender, race and socio-economic positionality.

3. Enhance Reflective Skills: Students will reflect on their lived experience of disability and/or mental distress and bring this important knowledge into conversation with their peers. This kind of reflective practice is key for deepening personal insights, fostering empathy, and building mad and crip community.

4. Community Engagement: Students will engage in discussion with their peers, making thoughtful and respectful contributions to communal learning.

5. Creative Expression: Students will be encouraged to express their feelings and process their thoughts about the course material in creative ways through writing, journal entries, art, poetry, or other media. Students will transform their "academic" learning into personal and communal expression.

Course Outline by Week:

Week 1: Introduction to One another, Introducing Mad and Crip Studies

Weeks 2 - 4: Read and discuss - Alice Wong Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care and Desire

Weeks 5 - 7: Read and discuss - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice

Weeks 8 - 10: Read and discuss - Micha Frazer-Carroll Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health

Class Schedule, Fall 2024:

The course will run for 10 weeks throughout September - November 2024. Meeting dates and times TBD.

Other Details:

-Amy will send you the Zoom link for class once we are closer to the start date. It will be the same link every week.

-Please be in touch with Amy at amy@madandcriptheologypress.ca with any questions about the course.