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Past Events

Check out some of the Past Events that Mad Studies Hub have done!

Policing Madness: On the Intersections between Mental Health, Homelessness, and Policing in Toronto & at 첥Ƶ

Location: HNES 140, 첥Ƶ — Keele Campus

Time: 2:30 - 5:30 pm

Discussion Panel (2:30 - 4:00 pm)

Workshop and Social Gathering (4:00 - 5:30 pm)

This event brings together community, organisers, researchers, and students to discuss the intersections between mental health, homelessness, and police abolition on-and-off 첥Ƶ campus. A discussion panel, a community safety workshop, and a social gathering comprise this event. Food and refreshments will be available! Please bring any new, or gently used, clean sleeping bags, tents, tarps, backpacks, or sealed hygiene products (travel-size particularly appreciated) for our Survival Gear Drive!

Speakers

  • Andrea Vásquez Jiménez, Policing-Free Schools
  • Dreddz, Voices for Unhoused Liberation
  • Jenny Duffy, Trinity Community Hub
  • Anonymous, Orange Hats Legal Observation

Moderators

  • Lynn LaCroix, Critical Disability Studies, Les Nocturnes Street Solidarity
  • Elene Lam, the School of Social Work, Butterfly Asian & Migrant Sex Workers Support Network

Sponsors 

  • The Mad Studies Hub
  • Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies
  • The School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
  • The Centre for Feminist Research
  • 첥Ƶ Graduate Students Association

Poster Description:Bolded white text, in a banner format, gives the title of the talk.Just below this banner, bolded black text reads: Event and Survival Gear Drive. There are six squares lined up on top of one another along the left side of the poster in a column. Here, there are pictures of the speakers or their organisations' logos. A description of the event is in the right side, upper corner of the poster. Below this description, the event location and time are given, a QR code, and the logos of the sponsors. The bottom of the poster is trimmed with an abstract art banner. The background of the poster is ombre green with faded white stars.

Masterclass: Novel Sociological Methods and Practices of Engagement across Disability Communities

This event was an interactive masterclass and dialogue inspired by the Frontiers in Sociology special issue and eBook “Novel Sociological Methods and Practices of Engagement across Disability Communities” (in Frontiers of Sociology, 2025) featuring panelists Aimee Sinclair, Luke Beesley, and Danielle Landry. The discussion was moderated by Marina Morrow, Director of the Mad Studies Hub at 첥Ƶ.

At this launch event, the authors presented and discussed their own contributions, offering reflections on what their methods reveal about the politics, practices, and possibilities of disability and mad research:

  • Aimee Sinclair – “Who decides on time? Mad Time as a disruptor of normative research politics and practices” — on how temporality, pacing, and rhythm can unsettle research conventions and reframe accessible, relational inquiry.
  • Luke Beesley – “‘[T]he most precise and thorough understanding of the situation we are struggling to change’: re-capturing emancipatory disability research” — on reclaiming the radical roots of disability research to advance emancipatory and justice-oriented scholarship.
  • Danielle Landry – “A Fight Worth Remembering: Sharing archival materials in interviews to support recall of ex-mental patient activism” — on how archival prompts can deepen memory work and support participant co-construction of activist histories.

Together, these presentations opened a lively dialogue about how centring disability as a methodological lens disrupts normative systems, builds alliances across diverse communities, and fosters more equitable forms of global knowledge production.

  • Date: February 11th , 2026
  • Time: 9:30 to 11 AM EST
  • Format: Virtual
  • Location: Online via Zoom

Link to Publication:

Link to Recording:

Connecting Mad, Trans & Detrans Studies: Discussion & Dialogue

In collaboration with the Mad Studies Hub, this virtual symposium provided an overview of the latest research on transition/detransition/retransition, focusing especially on the DARE study. To put the DARE study in conversation with Trans Studies and Mad Studies, the symposium featured a broad range of national and international speakers working at the intersections of Trans-Mad-Detrans. To learn more about the study, () and it’s substack: https://theonepercentdetrans.substack.com/

BIPOC Accessibility in the Post-Secondary Sector: A Critical Discussion

Join Navi Dhanota and other guest speakers for a conversation about the challenges of accessible accommodations in the post-secondary sector and critically discuss the relevant research and lived experiences in this sector. This event is free of charge and open to the public.

  • Date: January 26th , 2026
  • Time: 1 PM – 2:30 PM
  • Format: Virtual

Please see the event recording .

Additional information can be found .

Disabling Relations: Wounded Bodyminds and Transnational Praxis Book Launch

Come and join us at the launch of Sona Kazemi’s new book titled Disabling Relations: Wounded Bodyminds and Transnational Praxis. In her book, Dr. Kazemi highlights the live experiences of the disabled dissidents and survivors of the Islamic regime in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution in Iran.  Through an interactive presentation and Q&A session, Dr. Kazemi will describe the extensive research and lived experiences that merge in her manuscript, expanding on how disable bodyminds are produced and sustained through systemic violence and theocratic social relations. This event is free of charge and open to the public.    

This is a free, hybrid event, but registration is required. If attending in person, please register on Eventbrite by getting a free ticket as space is limited for in person attendees. However, if you would like to attend virtually, please register in advance for the Zoom meeting.

  • Date: January 22nd, 2026
  • Time: 12- 1 PM
  • Format: Hybrid

Please see the event recording .

Virtual Re-launch of Critical Disabilities Discourse Journal

We’re excited to invite you to the online re-launch of the Critical Disabilities Discourse Journal. Come ready to learn about the publishing process, steps to participate and next editions of CDDJ and Health Journals at YorkU. Don't miss this change to connect with a vibrant community and be part of meaningful conversations around critical disability studies! This event is free of charge and open to the public.

Date: January 16th, 2026

Time: 1 PM – 2:30 PM

Format: Virtual

Location: Online via Zoom

Panel: Rejecting the Romance of Police Reform

Drawing from years of scholarship, activism, and experience, this panel challenges the belief that policing can be reformed to deliver justice or safety. It reveals how reform often expands criminalization, colonialism, and state violence—undermining Black, Indigenous, and migrant justice movements. Centering abolitionist and transformative frameworks, and stories of alternatives to policing.  The panel calls for rejecting carceral and colonial logics and envisioning collective paths toward real safety and justice beyond policing.

Date: Oct 28, 2025 (Tue) 

Time: 6-8:45pm 

6-7 p.m. (Community engagement) Ross S801

7-8:45 p.m. (Panel discussion) Ross S802

Location: Ross Building S802,  첥Ƶ 
Opening Remarks: Dr. Ruth Green

Speakers: Audrey Huntley, Chanelle Gallant, Dr. Elene Lam, Dr. Robyn Mayard, Terri Monture

Learn more about the event and our speakers:  

Books Celebration: 

Policing Black Lives (Revised & Expanded Edition) by Robyn Maynard

Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice by Chanelle Gallant and Elene Lam 

Abolish Social Work (As We Know It) edited by Craig Fortier, Edward Hon-Sing Wong, and MJ Boryga

Co-sponsors: 

첥Ƶ 

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;Center for Feminist Research 

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;Critical Disability Studies

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;Critical Trafficking and Sex Work Studies

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;Harriet Tubman Institute

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;Mad Studies Hub 

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;School of Social Work 

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;Social Work Association of Graduate Studies

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;York Centre for Asian Research

Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network) 

HIV Legal Network 

No More Silence 

The Toronto Art Therapy Institute

Unfinished: Screening and Panel

Date: 23rd October 2025

Time: 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Location: Nat Taylor Cinema, 102 Campus Walk, North York ON M7A 2C5, Canada

Register:

Panelists:

  • Shabnam Sukhdev, Filmmaker, PhD Candidate, 첥Ƶ
  • Ishaa Vinod Chopra, RECE, Author, Dancer, Founder- Finding Order in Disorder NGO
  • Dr. Geoffrey Reaume, Critical Disability Studies, 첥Ƶ
  • Tereza Barta, Associate Professor, Cinema & Media Arts, 첥Ƶ
  • Dr. Jan DeFehr, Faculty of Education, University of Winnipeg

Moderator:

  • Marina Morrow, Professor, 첥Ƶ

About:

Join the Mad Studies Hub to view filmmaker Shabnam Sukhdev’s film “UԴھԾ” – a powerful story about a mother and daughter struggling to find meaning and connection through mental illness. Following the film panelists will engage in a discussion about mad representations in film, lived experience and the role of family members in recovery. Describing the film, Sukhdev says, “UԴھԾ remains my attempt at completing an unfinished conversation with my daughter to examine the circumstances of her diagnosis and our constant struggle with recovery and rehabilitation.”

Check out the

The screening will be followed by a roundtable discussion with our invited panelists focused on "Conversations on mental health, madness, and bridging lived experience"

Accessibility:
For access inquiries, please contact: mmmorrow@yorku.ca

Resisting Sanism in the University: Past, Present and Future

On September 24, 2025, we hosted the event Resisting Sanism in the University: Past, Present and Future featuring a panel discussion with Navi Dhanota, Accessibility Consultant Richard Douglass-Chin, Associate Professor, University of Windsor Danielle Landry, Research Associate, Toronto Metropolitan University Soumyaa Subramanium, MPH, University of Toronto. The panel discussion was based on research led by scholars affiliated with U of T, Carleton, University of Windsor and the Empowerment Council.

Please see the entire event's video .

Critical Perspectives on Coercive Practices in Mental Health

On April 9th, 2025 the Mad Studies Hub presented a panel presentation, Critical Perspectives on Coercive Practices in Mental Health. The panel featured the following speakers:

Marina Morrow, PhD 첥Ƶ Canada (MSH Director) Lived Experiences of Coercive Practices in Mental Health: Examples from Canada, Kenya & Australia.

Lisa Brophy, PhD La Trobe University Australia (Visiting Scholar, MSH) What We are Learning about the Use of Community Treatment Orders in Australia.

Nev Jones, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, USA (Guest, MSH) Adaptive Expectations, Internalized Oppression &Coercion: Learning from Qualitative Research on Inpatient & Outpatient Commitment in the United States.

Open Dialogue: Imagining the future of Mad Studies among students

On May 1st the Mad Studies Hub hosted a graduate student organized and led event, Open Dialogue: Imagining the future of Mad Studies among Students.

The event included panelists:

Walter Rafael Villanueva, PhD candidate Department of English, University of Toronto
Sarah Bergman, PhD student Critical Disability Studies, 첥Ƶ
Marcy Vuong, Master’s student Critical Disability Studies, 첥Ƶ

Majd H. Sayed, Master’s student Interdisciplinary Studies, 첥Ƶ
Sarah Porter, PhD candidate School of Social Work, University of Washington

The event resulted supported students to come together to share research and experience related to Mad Studies and to begin forming a student cluster at the MSH!

MAD TEACH-IN

On March 14th, 2025, The Mad Studies Hub co-sponsored (with Madness Canada and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies) MAD TEACH-IN: Exploring Mad Studies, Art, and Lived Experience. This engaging webinar featured presentations from David Reville, Kiran Shoker, and Noah Reid, with moderation by Adam Davies and facilitation by Kira Smith. Participants shared their insights through memoir, poetry, and lived experiences.