Navigating Mental Disability as a Doctoral Student

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.

Boulay, N. (2022) Navigating Mental Disability as a Doctoral Student. In R. Twinley and G. Letherby (eds.) The Doctoral Journey as an Emotional, Embodied, Political Experience. London, Routledge: 81–93