The public is invited to an online launch of a book promising the first comprehensive application of mad studies to queer and trans experiences of mental distress on Sunday, June 12, at 3 p.m.

Author Merrick Pilling is an assistant professor of women’s and gender studies in the UWindsor School of Social Work, teaching courses on disability, madness, race, sexuality, and gender. His work employs an intersectional, anti-racist lens that emphasizes the importance of lived experience, relevance to the communities being researched, and making changes to the systems that create marginalization.

His new book, Queer and Trans Madness: Struggles for Social Justice, advances a broad critique of the biomedical model of mental illness as it pertains to 2SLGBTQ people.

In it, Dr. Pilling explores the emancipatory promise of queer and trans madness, advocating for more resources to respond to crisis and distress in ways that are non-coercive, non-carceral, and honour autonomy and interdependence.

Sunday’s launch on the Zoom videoconferencing is free; learn more and register to attend on the event webpage.