Ubuntu as Counter-Narrative: How Peer Dialogue Reshapes the Language of Mental Health in African...

IAS Residential Fellow Wangui Maina delivers a seminar on their research, fully titled "Ubuntu as Counter-Narrative: How Peer Dialogue Reshapes the Language of Mental Health in African Universities" -

This seminar presents findings from an interdisciplinary investigation into how peer-led mental health interventions function as sites of discursive norm change among university students in Kenya. Drawing on discourse analysis of structured group sessions facilitated by trained student champions across 33 public universities, it examines how participants co-construct, and actively contest, the social meanings of distress, help-seeking, and wellbeing. Central to the analysis is the role of Ubuntu philosophy as a communicative resource: how a collective wellbeing framework operates not merely as cultural backdrop but as a practical discursive tool for displacing stigmatising, individualising mental health language. The seminar will share early analytical findings, invite critical dialogue on methodology, and explore implications for global mental health communication and peer intervention design.

Arrivals from 11:45 am for a 12:00 noon start. For those joining in-person, lunch will be served after the seminar from 1:00pm.

This event is hybrid format, please use the required booking button at the bottom of the page to choose either in-person or online attendance.
(Please note that in-person spaces are limited and booking is required, so we can manage numbers for catering and also the space in the seminar room)

By booking a place at this event, attendees agree to behave in a respectful manner such that everyone feels comfortable contributing as they wish. The IAS reserves the right to eject anyone who does not abide by this policy.

IAS seminars are typically recorded, minus any Q&A sessions at the end, again to encourage contributions. The recordings are then uploaded to our website on a Fellows bio page and/or Programme page, along with our IAS YouTube Channel. If you are not able to attend a seminar live, please do still register for the Teams webinar, as we will email everyone who registered to let them know once the recordings are made available.