Madness: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the Jim Crow South

In this lecture, (Associate Professor, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing) will examine how segregation and incarceration shaped the history of psychiatry and our understanding of "madness," particularly in relation to Civil Rights activism.

Drawing upon her research for her upcoming book (UNC Press, 2025), Dr. Smith's lecture will explore the ethical and archival challenges of studying psychiatric hospitals in the Jim Crow South and how this history informs current mental health disparities and the very legitimacy of psychiatry itself.

This special lecture is a part of the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry's Keyword series. Learn more on our website.

Date: March 5, 2025

Time: 5pm EST

Location: Jones Room, Woodruff Library

Online Livestream Registration: https://bit.ly/madness-fchi

About the Speaker

• Dr. Kylie Smith is an Associate Professor, tenured, and the Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellow for Nursing and the Humanities and Associate Faculty in the Department of History at Emory. She teaches courses on the history of race in health care, critical theory, and nursing theory and philosophy in the School of Nursing and the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Her research area is the history of psychiatry and she is the author of the award-winning book Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing. Her new book entitled Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South will be published by UNC Press and is supported by a grant from the National Library of Medicine (NIH).

Host or Publisher Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry