A quick reference guide to mental health on university campus: a brief rhetorical analysis of fear

an article by Joel Hawkes (University of Victoria, BC, Canada) published in Disability & Society Volume 34 Issue 1 (January 2019)

Abstract

I was teaching rhetoric at the University of Victoria when I received the ‘Quick Reference Guide: Assisting Students in Distress’, part of the university’s initiative to address the increasing problem of mental illness on university campuses.

I immediately read a rhetoric that presented mental health as Madness, as something to be feared, a threat to the university, class and the individual.

This short article is a brief rhetorical analysis of this Guide, and suggests that we must move beyond fear if we are to begin to address the mental health crisis on university campuses.

Full text (PDF 8pp)

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