I am a mad disabled researcher and organiser. I have been and am involved in research and activist projects related to disability studies, madness, and justice in the global South. I am currently the Co-Director of Mad Thinking. I have recently completed my PhD focussing on psychosocial disability activism in India.
I have experienced mental (ill)health and mental health services in India for over two decades. This experience of being categorised, ‘treated’, how my small acts of defiance were received by professional, professors, and society, and most importantly, the work of others taught me to critically re-examine my mental health experiences. I understand them as not merely medical matters but rather through a socio-political lens, mediated through my caste, class, sexuality, and gender locations. These experiences, as well as my engagement with activists, researchers, advocates, and other amazing people, drive my work and my politics.
Fundamental to my research and activist interests, are questions of injustice, of power imbalances, of oppression and exclusion, but also equally of resistance and solidarities, of inclusive and intersectional movement-building, and of creating communities and practices of care.
You can contact me by email: a[DOT]mehta[AT]madthinking[DOT]org; akriti[DOT]mehta[AT]gmail[DOT]com; or through Twitter: @akriti_mehta