Mad Scholars
Reclaiming and Reimagining the Neurodiverse Academy

Melanie Jones (Edited by), Shayda Kafai (Edited by), Sav Schlauderaff (Contributions by), Shawna Guenther (Contributions by), Rebecca Eli Long (Contributions by), Jess L. Wilcox Cowing (Contributions by), Sydney F. Lewis (Contributions by), Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarsinha (Contributions by), Melanie Jones (Contributions by), Caché Owens (Contributions by), Sarah Cavar (Contributions by), Rua Williams (Contributions by), Kelan Koning (Contributions by), Liz Miller (Contributions by), Samuel Z. Shelton (Contributions by), Pau Abustan (Contributions by), A-M McManaman (Contributions by), Jesse Rice-Evans (Contributions by), Andréa Stella (Contributions by), Sarah Smith (Contributions by), Grace Wedlake (Contributions by), Sarah Arvey Tov (Contributions by), Kimberly Fernandes (Contributions by), Diane R. Wiener (Contributions by), Holly Pearson (Contributions by), Shayda Kafai (Contributions by)

9780815638469

Paperback / softback, published 15 August 2024

396 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.666 kg

Mad Scholars critiques academic culture’s entrenched ableism and sanism and shows how difficult—still—it is to be recognized as having a positive, credible, valuable Mad subjectivity. The diverse voices in this book give us pathways for leading with care, both for ourselves and others. They reimagine academia. They tell us that our institutions can do better. This is a collection we need." — (Elizabeth Brewer, Central Connecticut State University)

As universities rethink their approach to student and faculty mental health, Mad Scholar showcases academics who proudly embrace the label of the "mad scholar." In twenty-three essays from contributors working in nearly a dozen disciplines across three continents, the volume explores the infinite richness of neurodivergent scholars’ lived experiences, centering their stories in opposition to hegemonic sanism and ableism in the academy. These essays, valuable to any "mad scholar" at any point in their career, highlight the challenges of simply existing within the traditional university model as well as showcase celebrations of community building, self-identification, and connection with students.

A corrective for neurodivergent scholars too used to having their experiences and stories told for them, this collection examines how a more open-minded administrative approach to academics who identify at the intersection of various marginalized identities would be a boon both to students and faculty. The essays provide an opportunity to envision a more hopeful, inclusive, and optimistic view of university culture and pedagogy, while offering concrete steps and strategies that radically reimagine the current landscape. Mad Scholars boldly dreams of a better future for anyone who claims the label, seeking to find fellowship, accommodation, and acceptance both within and outside of academia.

• Introduction: Naming Ourselves Mad
  
  
• Part One. Mad Pathways, Mad Exits
• 1. Don'
  t Call it "
  Mental Health"
  - A Discussion on disability Euphemisms and Disability Community
• 2. My PhD Drove Me Crazy (but I Was Already Mad)
• 3. Complaint as a Maddening Practice (Moving through the University as a Mad Grad Student)
• 4. Rest as Feminist Disability Praxis, or How to Write While Flaring, Depressed, and totally Burned Out
• 5. Diary of a Mad Black Woman in the Academy
  
  
• Part Two. Researching the Self
• 6. I'
  m Too Crazy for a Job - Thoroughbreds, Fuckups, and Autistic, Mad, Disabled, Femme Grassroots Intellectual-Freedom Portals
• 7. Embrace the Lie - Seeking Truths through Reading, madly
• 8. The Madmotherscholar in Academia and Beyond
• 9. In-Cite - The Mad Possibility of Interethnography
• 10. The Subject is Mad
  
  
• Part Three. Disclosure and Disruptive Pedagogies
• 11. Mad Lyrics - Toward an Embodied, Community-Responsive Pedagogy of Care in Academia
• 12. Mad Pedagogy in Disabling Academia
• 13. Teaching for Mad Liberation: Crip Dreaming toward a Transformative Pedagogy of Madness
• 14. Learning and teaching Bad as Resistance: Queer Crip Pilpinx Bad Pedagogy
• 15. "
  The Deadly Space Between"
  Toward and Mad Pedagogy and Mad Methodology
• 16. Crazy Femme Pedagogies: Toward an Archive
  
  
• Part Four. Mad Imaginaries, from Kinship to Community
• 17. Mad Resilience, Mad Kinship: Alternative Responses to Student Mental Health Crises
• 18. Anchoring in Mad Solidarity
• 19 Mad Laughter: On Finding and Forming Graduate Communities through Memes
• 20. On Mad Advantage, Redux: Covering, Passing, Negotiating (in) Higher Education
• 21. Landing without Failing: The Fucking Blue Dots
• 22. Orienting toward Togetherness: A Mad Phenomenology