At the end of May, I, Amanda Lin, Student Engagement Facilitator for The School of Disability Studies at Ryerson, had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Ricky Varghese, the incoming Tanis Doe Postdoctoral Fellow. I’m so thrilled to have the opportunity to introduce Dr. Ricky Varghese to our students, alumni, blog readers, and wider community. What follows below is our great conversation and introduction into Ricky’s life, work and interests.
Amanda: What led you to Disability Studies?
Ricky: I had always been fascinated by the body, but in a non-medical sort of way. I suppose my interest in the body has always been more phenomenological and philosophical than clinical, being moved by a desire to explore a body’s experience of – and how it is simultaneously perceived by – the world around it. Further to this, I became interested in aspects of bodily or corporeal existence that aren’t easily perceivable or discernable, which led me to an interest in mental health. My training is in psychoanalysis, and Sigmund Freud once wrote that each of our “ego is first and foremost a bodily ego; it is not merely a surface entity, but is itself the projection of a surface.” I became interested in this logic as a way to break down the mind-body split that is often thought of as an acceptable “norm.” I became particularly intrigued with how a sense of an ego and its relationship to the body might be informed by an experience of disability, debility, or illness, questions of access, and our immediate experience of the physical world.
Amanda: Tell us a little about yourself, your life, and interests?
Ricky: I like reading a lot, and I read pretty much anything that arrives at my desk, from so-called “high theory” to pulp fiction. I also have an interest in the visual arts. I consider art criticism a bit of a “side hustle” that I’ve developed in the last few years since completing my PhD, so I’ve written exhibition reviews, critical essays for art publications, and catalogue essays for shows that I have been invited to contribute to. Writing about art and about artists that I admire allows me to be experimental in some wildly interesting ways that I try to apply to my scholarly writing as well. I also have this uncanny interest in reality TV. I watch a lot of it, perhaps too much, and although most of it is always already overproduced, I find a lot of it to be startlingly revealing about human character and behaviour.
Amanda: What is your academic background?
Ricky: My academic journey has been somewhat circuitous. Believe it or not, I started out as a chemical engineering student back in 1997, with the intention of actually going to medical school after, like my parents had hoped I would. However, much to their consternation, I switched out at the end of my first year to major in Psychology, minor in English Lit. and History. While I was at Queen’s, during that time, I also started getting involved with Kingston’s HIV/AIDS Regional Services and with H’Art Studio, a visual arts program for adults with developmental disabilities. I think that’s when I realized I wanted to become a social worker. So after I completed my degree at Queen’s, I moved back to Toronto and enrolled in the Bachelor’s in social work program at York University. Then I went on to do my MSW at the University of Toronto. During both these programs, I completed my placements at the Toronto District School Board, in the Board’s Human Sexuality Program, specializing in anti-bullying and anti-homophobia education and counselling. Years of working hands-on in various communities made me miss theory and also realize its importance in my work, so I went on to do an MA and a PhD at OISE in Sociology of Education, that’s where and when I developed my interest in psychoanalysis. Ever since I completed my PhD, for the last few years, I have had a private practice as a psychotherapist here in Toronto, a practice in which I see a diversity of clients dealing with all kinds of emotional stressors and psychical traumas. After a few years of working within the context of my private practice, I decided to train to become a psychoanalyst at the Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis. I started that training in 2017 and am entering my fourth and final year at the Institute this September.
Amanda: Can you tell our students /readers about your work around suicides on campus and how universities respond?
Ricky: I have been interested in suicide as a subject for quite some time. The word “suicidal” gets used quite a bit when referring to a variety of psychical states and behaviours and I became curious about what this word means and how it is being used both colloquially and in the media. Therapeutically, I’ve also been driven to understand how self-destructive behaviour comes to inform a person’s emotional world. What are the limits that a person might be pushed to, emotionally speaking, that make suicide a choice that someone might take? Furthermore, I’ve been interested in the intersection between masculinity, race, and suicide. The philosopher Gilles Deleuze committed suicide as his health deteriorated and when continuing to write and work became impossible. The writer David Foster Wallace suffered from severe depression for years, which resulted in him taking his own life. The philosopher Walter Benjamin (on whom I wrote my doctoral thesis) is believed to have taken his own life while attempting to escape the Nazis. I’ve been compelled to think closely about the relationship between masculinity, the perceptions and fantasies attached to the category of the “genius,” and the romanticized way by which male suicides are sometimes valorized. I want to understand how systems and structures, such as universities, may create undue pressure in toxically calibrating masculinity in such a way that causes it to tend toward the death drive.
Amanda: Lastly, with current challenges due to COVID-19, can you tell our students/readers what it is like to start a postdoc remotely?
Ricky: I was saying to a friend the other day that starting to conceive of writing a book about suicide and the death drive in the midst of a global pandemic is in itself an uncanny experience, especially as you see the effects of late capitalism trudging along as lives are being lost. I hope I get to meet my colleagues and the students at the School of Disability Studies soon, but I understand the need to work remotely as a collective attempt to take care of and be responsible for one another’s health and well-being. One thing that this pandemic has brought to the surface is that it feels unfortunately inevitable that its impact will be felt most severely by those of us who are in marginal positions, folks who are racialized, disabled, gendered or identify as sexual or gender minorities, those experiencing mental health struggles, or are older, or have precarious health statuses, or those who suddenly find themselves unemployed or having to bear the brunt of financial uncertainty, those who are underhoused, homeless, or street-involved, and it’s important to be alert, now more than ever, to all of their very specific needs.
Ricky: I am very much looking forward to meeting all the faculty, students, and staff at the School of Disability Studies soon. I am hoping to find myself part of a vibrant and enriching community of scholars, activists, artists, and policy makers. I am super excited that the School will be my professional home for the next two years.
Vision Passion Action 