Mancstercon 2015 - Independent comic con

As someone who has attended this convention every year I recommend this highly you will not be disappointed  

Here is a link to their website Mancstercon

From their website - MancsterCon is a voluntarily run organisation dedicated to bringing together the best of the independent sequential art scene in the North West. We organise seminars, artist meet ups and an annual convention through which we aim to highlight new talent in comics, illustration, animation and games.

MancsterCon 2015 will be held on 29th August at the University of Salford, Media City Campus. Tickets are available to buy  here. Send any further enquiries tomancstercon@gmail.com.

Mancstercon 2015

MancsterCon is a voluntarily run organisation dedicated to bringing together the best of the independent sequential art scene in the North West. We organise seminars, artist meet ups and an annual convention through which we aim to highlight new talent in comics, illustration, animation and games.

MancsterCon 2015 will be held on 29th August at the University of Salford, Media City Campus. Tickets are available to buy here. Send any further enquiries tomancstercon@gmail.com.

Manchester Community Cohesion anti-hate crime event

For Manchester Sparkle

When nation, gender and madness collide

In all my years of studying Psychology I am always struck by how mental illness is often the first explanation that is ascribed to most behaviour. The history leading up to the formal diagnosis is often forgotten. creating disorder is more social process than a clinical one. I have challenged notions of biology before however my stance is best summed up by Richard Bentall- "Throughout the history of psychiatry, the idea that schizophrenia and related conditions are genetic diseases has been treated as an axiom, rather than a hypothesis."  

Here is the abstract I am presenting at the Psychology of Women's Section Conference 

Mental disorders are increasingly being looked at through clinical framework. The production of mental disorders is dependant upon social and historical factors. Location and gender interact with each other to produce disorders which are sometimes given a clinical status. Diagnosis in India is not merely dependent on clinical classifications. Women’s alcohol and drug consumption is tied to their sexuality, tethered to nationalistic discourse about ideal Indian femininity.

Women’s alcohol and drug use is often viewed as an anti national/maternal resistance leading to public violence. Bollywood films are a source of data to observe how cinematic violence often mirrors everyday violence against women and vice versa. Examining discourse in films and incidents of gender violence arguments of western corruption, representations of  ‘deviant’ women are used on screen as tropes to caution against trespassing the boundaries of national decorum.   Nationalism, gender and madness collide to create clinical disorders and social strategies of control. 

Some weather is truly sobering.