The Carceral Geographies of the University

Abstract

This paper brings together Mad Studies and studies in carceral geography to examine university responses to student suicidality, including defensive architecture, use of chemical and physical restraints during hospital transfers, and involuntary leave policies. I argue these responses are part of the carceral turn in many Canadian universities- intent on the control, containment and exclusion of mad and racialized bodyminds (Moran, 2015; 2017; 2018). Together, these new carceral measures are justified through ideologies of risk and safety that, through the application of psy-knowledges, construct the mad body as out of bounds. These efforts shape the affective experiences of students’ madness, distress, and suicidality. They reinforce the notion of the mad and suicidal subject as pathological and criminal, leaving little room to consider the historical and socio-cultural conditions shaping students’ everyday learning experiences.