A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education(Rethinking Careers, Rethinking Academia)

With evocative storytelling and incisive research, Katie Rose Guest Pryal brings a new eye to the mental health crisis that higher education has faced for decades. Written from the perspective of a bipolar-autistic professor, A Light in the Tower is both a bracing account of the mental health crisis in higher education and a passionate and informed proposal for how to teach with mental health in mind.Pryal contends that higher education’s mental health crisis is the result of long-term systemic problems in education that demand nothing short of a revolution. She examines the anxiety that plagues campuses as a result of exploited and overworked contingent faculty and students, the shock events like COVID-19 and campus shootings that traumatize communities, the systemic and institutional burnout that affects higher education at every level, and the market-driven culture of toxic overwork. These are large-scale problems that need large-scale solutions. Addressing the stigma that haunts mental disability on campus, the ableism that hounds our teaching, and the cascade of mental health struggles that far too many faculty and students face, Pryal provides straightforward solutions to these complex challenges. A Light in the Tower argues that excellent education and radical support for mental health struggles can coexist and provides detailed advice for how to do so. Meanwhile, Pryal debunks claims that supporting student mental health harms educational rigor (coining the term “rigor angst” to discuss the fear that rigor is declining). She outlines actionable steps professors and administrators can take to address the problem, including abandoning ableist and exclusionary campus culture; replacing “bad-hard” work that creates unnecessary logistical difficulties for students in favor of “good-hard” work that challenges them intellectually, providing an easy path to disability accommodations; and teaching accessibly for neurodivergent students.

Table of Contents:
PrefaceIntroduction: How to Talk about Mental Disability Part I. The Mental Health Crisis in Higher Education 1. Anxiety in Academia 2. Population Shock Events 3. Systemic Burnout 4. Toxic Academic Overwork 5. Setting Boundaries 6. The Disabled Mind in Academia 7. Writing Publicly about Mental Disability 8. Writing Depression Part II. Teaching with Mental Health in Mind 9. “The Darkness That Is Plaguing Our University” 10. Rigor Angst 11. Toxic Rigor Is Ableist 12. Teaching Mentally Disabled Students 13. Front-Line Faculty 14. Procrastination and Compassion 15. Teaching Accessibly/Inclusively Acknowledgments Bibliography

About the Author :
Katie Rose Guest Pryal, is an author, neurodiversity expert, and adjunct professor of law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education and the award-winning Even If You’re Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health.

Review :
In A Light in the Tower, Pryal’s discussion of the darkness of mental distress is riveting. The recommendations for teaching are very helpful, and I’ll be using them in my courses. I really appreciated the chapter on public writing as well. Public writing is an important outlet for faculty to apply their knowledge to the wider community, but many don’t know how to go about doing this. Thank you for this honest, practical, and reflective book."—Teresa Heinz Housel, editor of Mental Health among Higher Education Faculty, Administrators, and Graduate Students"A Light in the Tower brilliantly confronts the stigma against mental disability that haunts academia. With engaging prose, Pryal gives the academic community tools to deal with mental health crises and to build a more inclusive, healthier environment in academia for all people—students and faculty—living with mental disability and experiencing mental distress. An essential, game-changing book."—Elizabeth Donaldson, editor of Literatures of Madness: Disability Studies and Mental Healthand series editor of Literary Disability Studies