Collecting Canadian mad movement oral histories

Geoffrey’s project builds on Mad people’s history in Canada by collecting oral histories from key figures in the mad movement and supporting the development of an accessible Mad People’s History Archives. In collaboration with Efrat Gold and Anne McGuire, they are guided by the following questions: What are the implications of enriched discourses about Mad people’s history on societal understandings of mental health and how can we create ongoing opportunities for collective meaning-making with Mad communities and groups? Using a mad and disability studies lens, this project collects oral histories from those who were active in the Canadian Mad movement to expand existing archival holdings and challenge the exclusion of Mad people’s perspectives from mental health histories by centering Mad people’s agency, activism, and diversity. The project contributes to the development of knowledge in mental health and history with outcomes that advance knowledge by addressing exclusionary lived experience gaps in mental health history and discourse.