Dr. Ajitpaul Mangat, assistant professor of English at Niagara University, will deliver the 2025 Lecture in Disability Studies at SUNY-Brockport on Tuesday, Oct. 28. The presentation, which begins at 5 p.m., will also be livestreamed.
Dr. Mangat’s lecture, “‘I’m Not Actually Sad’: Depression, Popular Music, & Feminist Sisterhood,” considers the ways in which contemporary female pop singers reimagine biomedical understandings of depression through their feminist politics, and how the development of depression can be protected against through the social support of other women. The talk will focus on the lived experiences and musical performances of Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo, tracing their depressed feelings to the experience of chronic isolation and loneliness.
This presentation builds on one Dr. Mangat gave at the Depression in Popular Music Conference in Paris this past summer and will eventually appear in an upcoming special issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies on depression and popular music.
