A Light in the Tower

“In A Light in the Tower, Pryal’s discussion of the darkness of mental distress is riveting. The recommendations for teaching are very helpful, and I’ll be using them in my courses. I really appreciated the chapter on public writing as well. Public writing is an important outlet for faculty to apply their knowledge to the wider community, but many don’t know how to go about doing this. Thank you for this honest, practical, and reflective book.”—Teresa Heinz Housel, editor of Mental Health among Higher Education Faculty, Administrators, and Graduate Students

“A Light in the Tower brilliantly confronts the stigma against mental disability that haunts academia. With engaging prose, Pryal gives the academic community tools to deal with mental health crises and to build a more inclusive, healthier environment in academia for all people—students and faculty—living with mental disability and experiencing mental distress. An essential, game-changing book.”—Elizabeth Donaldson, editor of Literatures of Madness: Disability Studies and Mental Healthand series editor of Literary Disability Studies

“Katie Rose Guest Pryal shines a much-needed beacon on mental disability in academia and beyond—and most importantly, offers real solutions for creating equity in higher education. A Light in the Tower is a must-read for educators, administrators, and anyone else who wants to know and do better.”—Camille Pagán, author of Good for You, Everything Must Go, and Life and Other Near-Death Experiences

“In this unflinching look at the crisis and stigma around mental health in higher education today, Katie Rose Guest Pryal charges us to look carefully and critically at the systems we perpetuate that exclude faculty and students with mental disabilities from equitable opportunities to thrive. A must-read for those who want to know better, do better, and teach better.”—Rebecca Pope-Ruark, author of Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal

“Katie Rose Guest Pryal’s new book shows how the COVID-19 pandemic revealed an ugly truth about academia: it’s still one of the most inaccessible and ableist spaces in American society. Thankfully, it reveals another truth: higher education doesn’t have to be this way. Throughout her book, Pryal chronicles the obstacles people with disabilities and mental illness face both as students and faculty, but also ways to remove them. A Light in the Tower is essential reading for anyone in academia with a disability, but also those without one to know how to better support their colleagues and classmates.”—Eric Garcia, author of We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation