ABSTRACT
Doctoral students must contend with positions in the neoliberal university that are both contingently privileged and increasingly precarious. In what ways does doctoral work – specifically in the context of ongoing economics and structural changes within academia in Canada and the U.S. – impact students who live with mental disabilities? How do the structural, material, and discursive requirements of PhD programs presuppose a logic of embodiment and ability that positions ‘mental illness’ as irreconcilable with scholarly life? How are ‘neurodiverse’ or ‘neurodivergent’ students challenging systemic ableism or ‘saneism’ in our work and within our networks of care? Engaging current conversations in critical disability studies, I explore these questions through autoethnographic accounts that reflect my own experiences navigating chronic mental disability as a PhD student.
