This Working Group examines how narratives of trauma and violence intersect with the medicalization of mental health, particularly for survivors of trafficking, gender-based violence, and exploitation. Anchored in the 2025–2026 theme of Slow Care, T3M brings together faculty, students, and community partners from across UWM to ask how “slowing down” our understanding of mental illness—beyond quick diagnoses and pharmaceutical fixes—can foster more nuanced, trauma-informed, and survivor-centered approaches to care.
The group provides a forum for vibrant interdisciplinary study, drawing from psychology, public health, geography, and the humanities to critically explore how biological models of mental illness have both helped and harmed: reducing blame while also reinforcing stigma and narrowing approaches to healing. Over the next year, members will organize panels, workshops, and a March 2026 conference featuring scholars, practitioners, and survivors in dialogue about the promises and pitfalls of medicalized mental health.
Collaboratory members are invited to share their research and practice-based insights in working group meetings, and all members of the UWM community interested in mental health, trauma, and social justice are encouraged to attend. By amplifying these conversations on campus, T3M seeks to strengthen interdisciplinary scholarship, elevate survivor voices, and shape a more compassionate and inclusive mental health discourse.
Members
- Srishti Meera Sardana (PI, Psychology)
- Linnea Irina Laestadius (Public Health Policy)
- Lorraine Halinka Malcoe (Public Health)
- Christine K. Larson (Psychology)
- Penninah Kako (Nursing)
- Gabriela A. Nagy (Psychology)
- Ajeng Juwita Puspitasari (Psychology)
- Tiffany A. Thornton (UWM Libraries)
- Ni Made Frischa Aswarini (Public Health Professional)