Athena Madan
Assistant Professor
Sociology
- Contact:
- Office: COR A360 athenam@uvic.ca 250-721-7586
- Credentials:
- PhD (Toronto)
- Area(s) of expertise:
- Global health, health equity, humanitarian intervention, therapeutic governance and reconciliation, decoloniality
Dr. Athena Madan (University of Toronto, 2014) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria. She studies health and war, and the reconstruction of healthcare in post-conflict and fragile states through the lens of social medicine. Her expertise includes global health; capacity building; therapeutic governance; reconciliation; genocide and human rights; social innovation and theories of change; rehabilitation of child soldiers; the militarisation of aid; and the socio-political contexts of addiction. Her work draws on Southern theory, photoethnography, and Indigenous knowledges to advance decolonial approaches to understanding health, healing, and social repair.
Athena has experience in more than 24 countries across five continents. Specific countries of expertise include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Vietnam. She has worked with Doctors Without Borders, the Carter Center, the UNHCR, the WHO, grassroots NGOs, and provided anti-racist subject matter expertise to provincial governments in Canada. Athena has also served as an election observer for the DRC and Ukraine, and taught in England, France, and the United States. She is currently an appointed member of the British Columbia Attorney General’s Provincial Committee on Anti-Racism.
On a more personal note, Athena is half Filipino and half Indian; fluently bilingual in French and in English; the mother of Deven Francisco (born March 2019) and Sofia Isabela (born October 2023); the other half of Drew (a partner with Woodward & Company LLP); and the seventh of seven siblings (auspicious for a Filipino).
Athena has supervised graduate students looking at Indigenous knowledges, perceptions of reconciliation, health in development contexts, and anti-racism in education. She also participates in UVIC’s Social Dimensions of Heath (SDH) program and the Centre for Global Studies (CFGS).
Areas of expertise
- Global health
- Indigenous knowledges
- Humanitarian intervention
- Genocide studies
- Reconciliation
- Arts-and-community based research
- Decoloniality and Southern theory
- Health
- Human security
- War
Interests
- global mental health and humanitarianism
- health equity
- implementation science in LMICs
- social innovation
- sociology of race and ethnicity
- therapeutic governance and reconciliation
- decolonial methods
- evaluation research and photoethnography
Committee appointments external to UVic
- Co-Chair, Education committee, Consortium of Universities for Global Health
- Appointed Member, Provincial Committee on Anti-Racism, British Columbia Ministry of Attorney General
Awards
- 2022: Kelly Teacher’s Award, Royal Roads University
- 2021: Early in Career Award, Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia
- 2018: Untold Stories Award, National Public Radio & Johns Hopkins University
Publications
Madan (2018). Thoughts from Afghanistan: Rebuilding community in complexity. Intervention, 16 : 290-295.
Kidd, S.A., Madan, A., Rallabandi, S., Cole, D., Muskat, E., Raja, S., Wiljer, D., Aylward, D., & McKenzie, K. (2016). A Multiple Case Study of Mental Health Interventions in Middle Income Countries: Considering the Science of Delivery. PLOS ONE. 11(3): e0152083.
Kidd, S., Madan, A., Rallabandi, S., Cole, D.C., Muskat, E., Raja, S., Wiljer, D., McKenzie, K. (2016). Social entrepreneurship and mental health in low- and middle-income countries. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health: Toronto.
Kidd, S., Kerman, N., Cole, D., Madan, A., Muskat, E., Raja, S., Rallabandi, S., & McKenzie, K. (2015). Social Entrepreneurship and Mental Health Intervention: A Literature Review and Scan of Expert Perspectives. Int J Ment Health Addiction 13:776–787.
Madan, A. (2011). Mental health interventions in Canada for migrants affected by political violence: An effectiveness study. Ethnicity and inequalities in health & social care, 4 (3): 112-126
Madan, A. (2011). Intersections of war trauma, culture, and socioanalysis in mental health intervention for post- traumatic stress. International Journal of Child Youth and Family Studies, 3 & 4: 432-449.
McDermott, M., & Madan, A. (2012). Avoiding the missionary (dis)position: Research relations and (re)presentation. In G.S. Canella & S.R. Steinberg (Eds.), Critical Qualitative Research Reader (235-245). New York: Peter Lang. This book received the AESA (American Educational Studies Association) Critics Choice Award 2012.
Madan, A. (2010.) ‘Saisir les étoiles’: Fostering a sense of belonging with child survivors of war. In P. Jones (Ed.), Drama as Therapy Vol. 2: Clinical Work and Contexts (260-275). London: Routledge.
Madan, A. (2008) ‘Ma mère et moi’: Creative arts in a group treatment with mothers and their children. In S. Brooke (Ed.), The Use of the Creative Therapies with Survivors of Domestic Violence Populations (270-299). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Madan, A. (2016). Kinshasa Women’s Collective. Vignette for Chapter 15: War Rooms and Conflict Zones. In L. Cartwright & J. Crowder (eds), Handbook of Medical Anthropology. New York: Routledge.
Madan, A. (2016). Cooperation for Peace & Unity. Vignette for Chapter 16: Vital Signs: Medical Anthropology in the 21st Century. In L. Cartwright & J. Crowder (eds), Handbook of Medical Anthropology. New York: Routledge.
Madan (2013). Women and war: Faces from Afghanistan and the DRCongo. 7th Annual Decolonising the Spirit Conference: Subalterneity and Politics. University of Toronto: April 2013.
Madan, A. (2012). Spirit, post-Apartheid: Truth & Reconciliation in South Africa. 5th Annual Decolonising Conference. Faculty of Education, University of Toronto: April 2012.
Madan, A. (2021, Aug.). “Is the world doing enough on Afghanistan?” The Bill Kelly Show: CMHL900 Hamilton. August 16, 2021. Here for link.
Madan, A. (2021, May). “Canada, India, and the COVID19 pandemic.” On the Island with Gregor Craigie: CBC Radio / Radio Canada, Victoria. May 20, 2021. Here for link.
Madan, A. (2021, Apr). “What can Canada do to support India?” The Bill Kelly Show: CMHL900 Hamilton. April 30, 2021. Here for link.
Panza, K., and Madan, A. (2022). Championing Indigenous Innovation: Final Report. Research commissioned by Ashoka Canada from Royal Roads University.
Panza, K., and Madan, A. (2022). Championing Indigenous Innovation: Literature Review. Research commissioned by Ashoka Canada from Royal Roads University.
Madan, , Adeleye, O., Ighagbon, A., Panza, K., Alvarez, W., & Eddine, C. (2021). Challenging & Reimagining Humanitarian Innovation. For Elrha, UK: London.
RRU Anti-Racism Task Force (2021). The RRU Anti-Racism Action Plan. For President Philip Steenkamp, RRU: Victoria. Here for report on the RRU website.
Madan, A., for Ontario Child Welfare Secretariat (2017). Equity and Anti-Racism in Child Welfare. Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies: Toronto.
Madan, A., for Ontario Child Welfare Secretariat (2017). From anti-oppressive practice to theories of decolonization. In Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies: Toronto.
Madan, A., for the Ontario Child Welfare Secretariat (2016). Ontario Child Protection Tools Manual. Ministry of Child and Youth Services: Toronto.
Madan, A., for Ontario Child Welfare Secretariat (2016). Building upon AOP for more comprehensive systems change. In Pathway to Authorization Interim Report (pp. 30-39). Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies: Toronto.
Madan, A., Aminzay, F., Noorahmad, S., Sabawoon, S., Quraishi, N., & Ostendorf, L. (2013). Healthcare and social change: Delivery of the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) & trace effects of conflict reduction in Urozgan. Cooperation for Peace & Unity: Kabul, Afghanistan.