Making Sense of Mad Studies An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate & Early Career Symposium. (360G-Wellcome-109172_Z_15_Z)

Funding is requested to support a conference to be held at Durham University in September 2015, aimed at new and emerging researchers in the field of mad studies. Titled Making Sense of Mad Studies, this meeting will provide a vital opportunity for early-career (postgraduate and postdoctoral) researchers working in and around mad studies to explore critical new directions in researching madness and to forge the connections and collaborations required for the development of a thriving new genera tion of mad studies scholars. The conference emerges out of and draws from the successes of the nationally recognized North East Mad Studies Forum, founded by postgraduate members of the Durham University Centre for Medical Humanities in 2013 (now proposed chairpersons for this event). This proposal represents the second international postgraduate conference to emerge from the postgraduate community at the Durham Centre for Medical Humanities, following the symposium on Human Flourishing, funded by the Wellcome Trust in 2013. Confirmed keynote speakers include Prof Peter Beresford (Brunel), Prof Brendan Stone (Sheffield University), Dr Helen Spandler (University of Central Lancashire) and Dr Kathryn Church (Ryerson University, Toronto). In keeping with the ethos of mad studies, participation from non-academic/service-user communities will be integral to the conference design.