Skip to content →

CfP: AAA panel, New and Emerging Perspectives in the Anthropology of Mental Health

The Anthropology of Mental Health Interest Group requests abstracts for a panel to be presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings in St. Louis, MO (November 18-22). 

Recent years have seen a surge of anthropological research on mental health in the Global North and South. Anthropological approaches have grappled with syndemics, critically engaged with Global Mental Health, considered the intersections of disability, race, class, and other identities in mental health care, and have questioned the effects of possibly traumatic fieldwork experiences on the mental health of anthropologists themselves. Anthropologists have also charted the impact of governmental and quasi-governmental organizations’ distribution of mental health care services, the growth of psychiatric user/survivor movements, and activism(s) at the intersection of mental health services, education, and criminal justice systems. This panel features recent and up-and-coming work conducted by junior and senior scholars engaged with research on mental health. We are particularly interested in papers that grapple with intersectional approaches and identities, particularly work produced by traditionally under-represented voices. We encourage theoretical approaches grounded in Disability Studies, Mad Studies, the Health/Medical Humanities, Black feminism, Indigenous approaches, coloniality of power or decolonizing approaches, community engaged research, and Queer Studies. The papers will be organized around the question: what does the future of the anthropology of mental health look like?   

To be considered for this panel, please send a title, abstract (250 words), and keywords to Beatriz Reyes-Foster and Erica Fletcher at aamhig@gmail.com by Monday, February 24. We will issue decisions on all submissions by March 2nd. 

Published in Uncategorized