Amplifying the mental health of Black university students
A project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Amplifying the mental health of Black university students: A Black, mad and disability studies intersectional inquiry
Project Overview:
The poor mental health of university students constitutes a contemporary global crisis. Black students’ mental health is particularly at risk due to institutional processes of anti-black racism, ableism and sanism; discrimination often not addressed by theory, policy and practice.
This project addresses this truly intersectional problem. We draw on Black, mad and disability studies to explore and enhance the mental health of Black students in four English universities. We will work with Black students, academics, and professional service colleagues.
Project’s aims:
- Amplify the social and cultural experiences infl;uencing Blackstudents’ mental health and wellbeing at university;
- Explore universities’ mental health and wellbeing support structures and services available to Black students;
- Offer an evidence base that informs the development of a co-produced, university-wide response to Black students’ mental health and wellbeing.
Project objectives:
- To develop a form of inquiry that addresses a contemporary problem: Black students facing mental distress being failed throughout the lifecycle at university.
- To generate a new area of transformative interdisciplinary scholarship - informed by Black, Mad and Disability Studies - that amplifies and addresses the mental health and wellbeing experiences of Black students in English universities.
- To re-centre Black students’ lived experiences of their mental health and wellbeing as meaningful for reimagining support, care, and access in the University.
- To critically identify and interrogate examples of enabling university support systems, policies and practices that affirm the mental health of Black students.
- To develop creative, co-produced methodologies that bring together non-academic organisations, universities and their students, and academics to reaffirm the mental health of Black Lives.
- To enact forms of public engagement that raise public discourse and awareness of the mental health of Black students in English universities.
Workstreams:
Project Team:
Dr Manny Madriaga, University of Nottingham
Dr Nadena Doharty, University of British Columbia
Dr Saadye Ali, University of Hertfordshire
Dr Arya Thampuran, Durham University
Dr Antonios Ktenidis, University of Sheffield
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