Cross-reading Afro-Asia & the Psychiatric Asylum in Vietnam & Algeria, 1945-1962s

media release: Africa Talks is a monthly talk series purposefully launched by the African Studies Program at UW-Madison in collaboration with the African Center for Community Development, Inc to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of Africa at Noon. This year, we want to celebrate 50 years of sharing scholarships on campus by reminding our community that the work we do must extend beyond the walls of the university. Every last Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., advanced graduate student affiliates of the African Studies Program will present a one-hour talk to community members in Madison and its environs.

Talk Title: Cross-Reading Afro-Asia and the Psychiatric Asylum in Vietnam and Algeria, 1945-1962

Nguyễn’s dissertation project examines radical psychiatric/psychotherapeutic praxis in Vietnam and Algeria post-WWII, within a broader theoretical framing of Afro-Asia intimacies, postcolonial studies, decoloniality, and critical social theory from the Global South. Against the landscape of liberation wars and decolonization across the two continents, her research brings forth a radical reconfiguration of the psychiatric asylum space by studying the encounter between the seemingly distinct identities of psychiatric patient and political dissident. Engaging with archival materials and literary analysis of works produced by the residents of psychiatric asylums, the project draws connections among seemingly unrelated temporal, spatial, and social conditions to problematize the contemporary construction of global mental health.

Speaker: Nguyễn T. Thuỳ-Trang is a PhD candidate at the Department of Geography, UW-Madison. She is also a practicing psychotherapist, specializing in traumatic stress in children and adolescents. She grew up in Vietnam.

Community Panelist: Sadat Abiri, APNP, PMHNP-BC, MPH, is a community leader and distinguished psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with over 25 years of experience in the field of mental health.

Moderator: Isabella Musherure, mental health practioner