Past event
Saints Talk: Dr Bridget Bradley Biosolidarity: Understanding the relationship between mental health labels and community activism
Development is delighted to invite you to the next instalment in our Saints Talk series from Dr Bridget Bradley.
In her talk, Dr Bradley will use her concept of biosolidarity to show the ways that labelling and activism work together to increase the visibility of illness communities. However, by examining the differences between these two research examples, she also reveals the complexities of mental health labels and activism during a time of climate crisis in Britain.
Diagnostic labels are increasingly normalised in our everyday lives, used to describe, classify and make sense of different experiences of health and disease. In particular, mental health labels are arguably becoming de-stigmatised in British society, with activists helping their communities to reclaim diagnostic labels as symbols of identity, and solidarity.
Bridget Bradley was awarded her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2019. Bridget considers herself an applied anthropologist and is involved in ongoing advocacy work with the Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRB) community, collaborating with her interlocutors to raise awareness and improve support options in the UK. Dr Bradley's new research continues her interest in mental health and community activism and focuses on experiences of eco-anxiety with climate activists and their families in Britain.