Title: PhD Student
University: University of South Florida
Email: kwalkup@mail.usf.edu
Twitter: @klwalkup
Description of your work
I study mental health, stigma, and disability. Right now, I’m interested in mental health policy, and how policy documents use antiquated ideas about individuals with mental health conditions to stigmatize these individuals.
My dissertation project asks how Florida school districts’ mental health plans may disadvantage students who present with mental health concerns. I do this by examining how these school districts respond to two points of contention in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which mandates that school districts identify students with mental health concerns, and then assess the threat those students pose to their communities.
When mental health is construed as a public threat, schools’ mental health plans may become a way of targeting students with mental health concerns. I want to know how these students are identified and assessed, and I’m using scholarship from Rhetoric of Health and Medicine and Disability Studies to develop better practices for mental health diagnoses in school settings.