Histories of Global Mental Health: An International Conference
June 25 鈥� 26, 2026
This two-day conference on the Histories of Global Mental Health (HGMH) is a response to the emergence in the last two decades of a global mental health movement. It will connect historians of mental health interventions across the globe, some of whom are humanities scholars or social scientists, and mental health practitioners. The conference aims to bridge short and long histories of global mental health. The short history is of public health initiatives in the 21st century designed to relieve the burden of mental, neurological and substance-use disorders鈥攎ost urgently in the Global South鈥攁nd of the critique of such initiatives from some cultural psychiatrists and anthropologists as 鈥渘eocolonial missionizing鈥� or 鈥渃ultural proselytizing.鈥� The long history examines the dominant Western idea of 鈥渕ental health鈥� and the hope of the proponents of global mental health that it could apply to individuals and communities universally. The theme of Day 1 will be the long history, with participants interrogating the history of the 鈥済lobalizers鈥� (North) and 鈥済lobalized鈥� (South). On Day 2, participants will historicize and examine the significance of concepts of 鈥渕ental health鈥� as well as the productive potential of historical perspectives for mental health practitioners.
This special event is co-hosted by 成人VR视频鈥檚 Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry and the Jason A. Hannah Chair in History of Medicine at University of Ottawa, with support from 成人VR视频鈥檚 Departments of Social Studies of Medicine, Global and Public Health, and Anthropology.
Co-Conveners: Suzanne Hollman, Susan Lamb, Wade Pickren, Rachael Rosner
Invited Speakers: Gabriel Abarca-Brown, Ana Antic, Alejandro Dagfal, Cristiana Facchinetti, Catriel Fierro, Laurence J. Kirmayer, Alexander Myrick, Karishma Nanhu, Nana Osei Quarshie, Joelle Abi-Rached, Shilpi Rajpal, Mariano Rupertholz, Ana Luisa de Fran莽a S谩, Luke Stark