Histories of Global Mental Health: An International Conference
June 25 – 26, 2026
This two-day conference on the Histories of Global Mental Health (HGMH) is a response to the emergence in the last two decades of a global mental health movement. It will connect historians of mental health interventions across the globe, some of whom are humanities scholars or social scientists, and mental health practitioners. The conference aims to bridge short and long histories of global mental health. The short history is of public health initiatives in the 21st century designed to relieve the burden of mental, neurological and substance-use disorders—most urgently in the Global South—and of the critique of such initiatives from some cultural psychiatrists and anthropologists as “neocolonial missionizing” or “cultural proselytizing.” The long history examines the dominant Western idea of “mental health” and the hope of the proponents of global mental health that it could apply to individuals and communities universally. The theme of Day 1 will be the long history, with participants interrogating the history of the “globalizers” (North) and “globalized” (South). On Day 2, participants will historicize and examine the significance of concepts of “mental health” as well as the productive potential of historical perspectives for mental health practitioners.
This special event is co-hosted by McGill’s Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry and the Jason A. Hannah Chair in History of Medicine at University of Ottawa, with support from McGill’s Departments of Social Studies of Medicine, Global and Public Health, and Anthropology.
Co-Conveners: Suzanne Hollman, Susan Lamb, Wade Pickren, Rachael Rosner
Invited Speakers: Gabriel Abarca-Brown, Ana Antic, Alejandro Dagfal, Cristiana Facchinetti, Catriel Fierro, Laurence J. Kirmayer, Alexander Myrick, Karishma Nanhu, Nana Osei Quarshie, Joelle Abi-Rached, Shilpi Rajpal, Mariano Rupertholz, Ana Luisa de França Sá, Luke Stark