CAMHRA Inaugural Lecture with Dr Bhrigupati Singh

Can distress or care be quantified? Mental health research and practice often demand metrics as their most reliable mode of knowing. In contrast, anthropologists mostly distrust quantifiable measures. What alliances, if any, are possible between these seemingly opposed forms of knowledge?

Using the Indian philosophical text, the Pañcatantra to understand the idea of alliances as a tantra (a fragile weave or stitch between diverse beings and forms of knowledge), this lecture offers a five-fold weave between anthropology and mental health research and practice, drawing on a decade of ethnographic work in India, in psychiatric clinics, urban poor neighborhoods, and healing shrines, as well as collaborative work with psychiatrists.

Join the Centre for Anthropology and Mental Health Research in Action (CAMHRA) for the Centre’s inaugural lecture by Dr Bhrigupati Singh (Senior Lecturer, SOAS) – with opening remarks from Professor Laura Hammond (Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Knowledge Exchange, SOAS). The lecture weaves together anthropology and mental health research and practice, drawing on a decade of ethnographic work in India, in psychiatric clinics, urban poor neighborhoods, and healing shrines, as well as collaborative work with psychiatrists.

The lecture will be preceded by an opening reception (5:30pm – 7:00pm) in the Paul Wembley wing, Senate House, SOAS. Celebrate with CAMHRA team members, researchers, fellows, and partners from London, across the UK, and around the world. Light food and drink will be provided.

About CAMHRA:

The Centre for Anthropology and Mental Health Research in Action a globally oriented and locally connected hub for cutting-edge anthropological research, education and public engagement on mental health.

As societies grapple to respond to the scale and complexity of mental health needs, CAMHRA contributes distinctly anthropological perspectives to a growing global understanding of how societies can understand mental distress and build effective systems of care.