A Pedagogy of Unwellness

This chapter chronicles the making of Open in Emergency: A Special Issue on Asian American Mental Health, in a set of letters to the reader, the author’s partner and collaborator Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, and the author’s daughter. In this chronicling, the chapter offers an arts approach to mental health, laid out in the making of Open in Emergency’s elements such as a hacked mock DSM: Asian American Edition and an original deck of tarot cards. It also offers the frame of a “pedagogy of unwellness,” the recognition that we are all differentially unwell. The chapter situates the book at the intersections of Asian American studies, disability studies, and critical university studies, and situates Asian American unwellness at the intersections of race, ableism, model minoritization, and the university.