Life Histories in Mind: Mental Ill Health and Learning Disability in Context

Organised by Dr Rebecca Ball and Professor Rob Ellis

Please see full Call for papers here.

The aim of this conference is to explore mental ill health and learning disabilities in the context
of life and experiential histories. Early research in these areas focussed on biographies of
relatively well-known medical practioners, with details of their achievements in progressing
the history of ‘care’ and treatment. Since the 1980s, scholars have attempted, with varying
degrees of success, to prioritse the ‘voices’ of patents and service users with a view to
capturing a more detailed and critcal understanding of the past and present. As historical
inquiry has moved into newer areas of analysis there is now a clearer understanding of the
many individuals and groups, beyond those offered up by institutional and medical records,
involved in treatment regimes. This includes the importance of life beyond the diagnosis.
Allied to this has been the newer modes of storytelling that have arisen from online
opportunities and creatve partnerships between academics and specialists in other fields,
including, artists, theatre practitioners, and heritage professionals. These efforts reflect the
inter-and cross-disciplinary interest in life histories and the complexities of sharing them.
Within this broad framework we invite abstracts that seek to reinvigorate the possibilities
offered by life narratives (broadly defined) and their place within our understandings of
mental health and illness and learning disability. We hope this will include original research
utilising a range of sources and methodologies across a wide chronology, and from a range of
disciplines.