Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education

"If you want to understand how higher education is built, and not built, for people with disabilities-especially mental health-related ones-Pryal's book is for you." -Book Riot

"This is a book about mental illness and academia. But this is also a book about so much more than that: it's about grief, and friendship, and collegiality, and accessibility, and tragedy...."

While strides have been made to improve accessibility and inclusion in the workplace, for the millions who are neurodivergent or struggle with their mental health, the quest for acceptance often happens in the shadows-if at all. In higher education, where competition is stiff and job security tenuous, neurodivergent academics suffer in silence to avoid stigmatization and suspicion.

In this collection of deeply personal essays, Dr. Katie Pryal, a bipolar-autistic activist, law professor, and author of A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education, traces her journey through her years as a student and professor to the moment she chose to publicly disclose her mental illness, leave her teaching career, and begin her fight for a better world for neurodivergent people.

Adeptly weaving her experiences together with the stories of colleagues grappling with the management of their health within the walls of some of our most revered academic institutions, the stories she tells are as universal as they are harrowing: the constant worry, the fight for accommodations, being passed over for advancement, attracting the groundless suspicion of others, and the raw reality of living in a world that pushes mental health to the margins.

Life of the Mind Interrupted is an essential and ultimately hopeful addition to the conversation on how society can treat disabled people more humanely and foster allyship in the workplace and beyond.

"Pryal writes with a refreshing and raw honesty. ... A must-read, not just for those in academia." -Booktrib Magazine

"1127102122"
Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education

"If you want to understand how higher education is built, and not built, for people with disabilities-especially mental health-related ones-Pryal's book is for you." -Book Riot

"This is a book about mental illness and academia. But this is also a book about so much more than that: it's about grief, and friendship, and collegiality, and accessibility, and tragedy...."

While strides have been made to improve accessibility and inclusion in the workplace, for the millions who are neurodivergent or struggle with their mental health, the quest for acceptance often happens in the shadows-if at all. In higher education, where competition is stiff and job security tenuous, neurodivergent academics suffer in silence to avoid stigmatization and suspicion.

In this collection of deeply personal essays, Dr. Katie Pryal, a bipolar-autistic activist, law professor, and author of A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education, traces her journey through her years as a student and professor to the moment she chose to publicly disclose her mental illness, leave her teaching career, and begin her fight for a better world for neurodivergent people.

Adeptly weaving her experiences together with the stories of colleagues grappling with the management of their health within the walls of some of our most revered academic institutions, the stories she tells are as universal as they are harrowing: the constant worry, the fight for accommodations, being passed over for advancement, attracting the groundless suspicion of others, and the raw reality of living in a world that pushes mental health to the margins.

Life of the Mind Interrupted is an essential and ultimately hopeful addition to the conversation on how society can treat disabled people more humanely and foster allyship in the workplace and beyond.

"Pryal writes with a refreshing and raw honesty. ... A must-read, not just for those in academia." -Booktrib Magazine

18.99 In Stock
Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education

Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education

by Katie Rose Guest Pryal
Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education

Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education

by Katie Rose Guest Pryal

Paperback

(Not eligible for purchase using B&N Audiobooks Subscription credits)
$18.99 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

"If you want to understand how higher education is built, and not built, for people with disabilities-especially mental health-related ones-Pryal's book is for you." -Book Riot

"This is a book about mental illness and academia. But this is also a book about so much more than that: it's about grief, and friendship, and collegiality, and accessibility, and tragedy...."

While strides have been made to improve accessibility and inclusion in the workplace, for the millions who are neurodivergent or struggle with their mental health, the quest for acceptance often happens in the shadows-if at all. In higher education, where competition is stiff and job security tenuous, neurodivergent academics suffer in silence to avoid stigmatization and suspicion.

In this collection of deeply personal essays, Dr. Katie Pryal, a bipolar-autistic activist, law professor, and author of A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education, traces her journey through her years as a student and professor to the moment she chose to publicly disclose her mental illness, leave her teaching career, and begin her fight for a better world for neurodivergent people.

Adeptly weaving her experiences together with the stories of colleagues grappling with the management of their health within the walls of some of our most revered academic institutions, the stories she tells are as universal as they are harrowing: the constant worry, the fight for accommodations, being passed over for advancement, attracting the groundless suspicion of others, and the raw reality of living in a world that pushes mental health to the margins.

Life of the Mind Interrupted is an essential and ultimately hopeful addition to the conversation on how society can treat disabled people more humanely and foster allyship in the workplace and beyond.

"Pryal writes with a refreshing and raw honesty. ... A must-read, not just for those in academia." -Booktrib Magazine


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781947834057
Publisher: Pryal Consulting, Inc.
Publication date: 10/16/2017
Pages: 210
Sales rank: 924,024
Product dimensions: 5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.48(d)

About the Author

Katie Rose Guest Pryal, J.D., Ph.D., is the bestselling author of Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education, The Freelance Academic: Transform Your Creative Life and Career, and Even If You're Broken: Essays on Sexual Assault and #MeToo. She's also the author of novels including Entanglement, Chasing Chaos, Fallout Girl, and Take Your Charming Somewhere Else. Her essays have appeared in Catapult, The Toast, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and other venues.

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. Disclosure Blues

1. Disclosure Blues

2. She's So Schizophrenic!

3. Shattering the Madness Monolith

4. Breaking the Mad Genius Myth

5. Working When Your Brain Isn't

6. Rough Accommodations

7. Revisiting Disclosure

II. Collegiality

8. Collegiality and Disability

9. Help! My Best Friend is Bipolar

10. Handling Personal Tragedies Around You

11. I’m Not Brave

12. Not a Compliant Woman Colleague

13. Conference Challenges for People with Psychiatric Disabilities

14. Accessibility Is for Everyone

15. Believe Your Colleagues with Disabilities

III. Teaching

16. How to Have the Accommodations Talk

17. Trigger Warnings Are a Disability Issue

18. How Making My Teaching Accessible Made My Teaching Better

19. What Do Psychiatrically Disabled Faculty Owe Our Students?

20. We Are Not Prepared for Students in Distress

21. The Secret Life of the Graduate Student

IV. Beyond the Academy

22. A Mother’s Suicide Attempt and the Guilty Burden of Statistics

23. Traveling Stigmata

24. With New Life Comes a Fear of Death

Acknowledgments

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews