Mad Studies in Archaeology & Heritage

The field of Mad Studies emerged in the 2000s and has recently gained traction in archaeology and heritage (Michaut 2024; Rodéhn 2024). However, despite the growth of Mad Studies as an academic discipline (especially in North America), institutions for further education in Europe have been significantly slower to adopt it as an approach.

The UCL Institute of Archaeology is uniquely placed in having two research students centering Mad Studies in their own research. Annabel Gee is applying this to a heritage and museum context and Elias Michaut is focusing on its use within archaeology. Both have already begun forming a network of Mad Studies scholars within Europe and beyond, including Dr Cecilia Rodéhn (Associate Professor in Conservation at Uppsala University) who has been pioneering the use of Mad Studies as a heritage methodology in Sweden.

This symposium will showcase some of the ground-breaking research approaches currently being developed surrounding themes of ‘madness’ and how these continue to shape the way we see society and influence social, cultural, political and economic practices.

The event will bring together heritage and archaeology researchers who are starting to spearhead the use of Mad Studies as a disciplinary approach and will providenthe opportunity to share projects, papers and ideas for future research and practice in a supportive and positive academic environment.

The symposium, which is supported by a UCL IAS Octagon Small Grant, will take place at UCL, between 11am and 5pm, at the Kennedy Lecture Theatre (in UCL’s Great Ormond Street Institute). A Zoom link for those unable to attend in person is available, please contact the organisers (details below).

Programme

11am to 11.30pm: Welcome & Refreshments

11.30am: Cecilia Rodehn (Uppsala University): ‘enter the cemetery with reverence’ – reading information boards at swedish psychiatric hospital cemeteries madly

12pm to 1.30pm: Mad Studies in Archaeology

• Elias Michaut (University College London): Liberation, carcerality, and mad archaeologies
• Joel Santos (University of Leicester): Sanism and dehumanisation in Portuguese psychiatric institutions
• Eli Brown (University College London): Enacting and Refusing Erasure: A Friern Barnet Hospital Case Study
• Javiera Letelier Cosmelli (KU Leuven): Madness and Materiality: Archeological Approach to Psychiatric Spaces in Chile

1.30pm to 2.30pm: Lunch

2.30pm to 3.15pm: Mad Studies in Heritage & Museums

• Annabel Gee (University College London): Glenside Hospital Museum, Bristol: Toward a Mad Reading
• Jay Mateo (Aarhus University): Un-silencing the mad, a new schizophrenia exhibit

3.15pm: Geoffrey Reaume (York University, Toronto): How does Public History relate to Mad Studies?

3.45pm to 4pm: Tea Break

4pm to 5pm: Roundtable & Discussion

Contact

Please contact the symposium organisers Annabel Gee and Elias Michaut with any queries.