Savitri Persaud

Dr. Savitri Persaud is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Health and Society (University of Toronto), working with Dr. Anita Benoit on the CIHR-funded WHiSE 2.0 research project assessing Indigenous specific harm reduction needs and increasing access and knowledge of harm reduction in Northern Ontario communities. Dr. Persaud was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (University of Toronto), working with Dr. Lori Ross on the SSHRC-funded "Mapping the Gaps” research project, which analyzed graduate student mental health in Ontario universities. Her individual program of research is generously funded by SSHRC and explores how mental distress is understood and experienced in Guyana and among Caribbean diasporas, specifically analyzing the competing and complementary discourses, aetiologies, and diverse practices employed by Guyanese and Caribbean communities to address and ease distress. She is also a Research Collaborator on the project “Disability, Gender-Based Violence and COVID-19: Experiences of Women in Guyana” (SSHRC Partnership Engage Grants - COVID-19 Special Initiative). Her research is rooted in community and scholastic exchanges in the Caribbean and its diasporas, having collaborated with Red Thread Women’s Development Organisation, the Guyana Foundation, and the Inter-Guyanas Feminisms Project. Dr. Persaud is currently preparing her first monograph, which springs from her doctoral research and is tentatively titled “Somebody do dem something”: Madness, Mental Health Care, and the Caribbean Psychospiritual.