University Mental Health Day 2024

University Mental Health Day on Thursday 14 March brings the University community together each year in an effort to make mental health a university-wide priority across the country, and to create continued change to the future of student and staff mental health. 

Maths and Madness: An Academic’s Dance with Bipolar Disorder

• Time and date: 10am-11am, Thursday 14 March 2024
• Venue: Room A6, Llandinam Building (Location)
• Open to students and staff. No registration required.

Kim Kenobi works as a statistics lecturer in the Maths Department.  He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1995.  In this talk, he will discuss working and living against the backdrop of long-term mental illness.  He will include some details of how his bipolar disorder has impacted him over the past 30 years and offer insights into the gradual healing he has experienced, helped by autobiographical writing.

Kim now finds himself in a fairly strong position regarding his mental illness.  He takes regular medication that helps him to maintain stability and uses a range of mindfulness practices to help him to continue to ground into his physical experience.  He finds living and working in Aberystwyth an excellent environment for releasing the stress that has historically contributed to his times of being unwell.  The purpose of this talk is to offer a personal account of how mental illness can manifest and how, with patience and dedication, it is possible to come to terms with bipolar disorder and learn to live well in spite of the challenges of this condition.