ABSTRACT

In a chapter for Mad Matters – A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies (LeFrançois et al, 2013), the author offered a “recipe” for developing Mad Studies in the academy. This chapter picks up where that one left off. In November 2018, Kathy Boxall and the author met via Skype for a conversation about taking Mad Studies back out into the community. Because Mad Studies is founded in the stories of Mad people, it’s wrong to sequester those stories. Mad people should know their own history of resistance and struggle. One way to make that happen is to hold workshops for survivor groups; another is to create research teams that include members of the Mad community. The author was part of a group that endowed a bursary in Mad People’s History; the bursary pays the fees of a member of the Mad community.