Dying to Learn: A Mad Students Panel — February 28th at Charles Street Video
Dying to Learn: A Mad Students Panel is presented as event programming for Love My Dysfunctions — an immersive exhibition by Rebecca Sweets.
The LOVE MY DYSFUNCTIONS art exhibition reflects a common practice of institutions individualizing mental health to avert accountability. As academic institutions deny their role in perpetuating high rates of student distress; flawed "solutions" such as anti-stigma campaigns, self-care initiatives, resiliency models, and other individualized notions become a standard and passive response. The oversaturation of band-aid initiatives serves to decenter the university as a systemic contributor to issues faced by Mad students and continue on a legacy of inaction.
This panel will be a conversation between mad and neurodivergent students + former students on anti-sanism and anti-ableism in academia ranging from topics such as the institutionalization of sanism and ableism in academic policy and culture, internalized ableism and sanism in the academy, and imagining what a mad-positive university might look like. Panelists include:
• Rebecca Sweets
• Nadia Kanani
• Twoey Gray
• K Zimmer
• Max Ferguson
Biographies for all panelists will be coming shortly! This event is FREE. Please e mail rebeccasweetsart@gmail.com if you have any access needs.
DATE + TIME | Friday, February 28th from 7-9pm
LOCATION | Charles Street Video (32 Lisgar Street, 2nd Floor)
This panel is led by Rebecca Sweets and presented by the Margin of Eras Gallery in collaboration with Charles Street Video.
ABOUT REBECCA SWEETS
Rebecca Sweets is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist, troublemaker, and doll collector. Through vulnerable, exploratory and immersive techniques, her mediums combine tangible, performative, and interactive storytelling. Her work involves themes of mixed race identity, digital intimacy, and radical empathy at the intersection of disability justice, mad pride and neurodiversity. You can find her at rebeccasweets.com.