
Dr Sarah Golightley
Lecturer
Social Work and Social Policy
Area of Expertise
- Troubled teen industry and therapeutic boarding schools
- Mad Studies & Critical Disability Studies
- Service user/survivor-led research
- Social work with LGBTQ+ people
Publications
- Troubling the 'troubled teen' industry : adult reflections on youth experiences of therapeutic boarding schools
- Golightley Sarah
- Global Studies of Childhood Vol 10, pp. 53-63 (2020)
- https://doi.org/10.1177/2043610619900514
- 'I'm gay! I'm gay! I'm gay! I'm a homosexual!' : overt and covert conversion therapy practices in therapeutic boarding schools
- Golightley Sarah
- British Journal of Social Work Vol 53, pp. 1426-1444 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcad049
- Troubling the ‘troubled teen industry’ : institutional violence, epistemic injustice, and psychiatrised youth
- Golightley Sarah
- (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.7488/era/4609
- Ableism and Social Work Education in England and Scotland
- Golightley Sarah
- Doing Feminisms in the Academy Identity, Institutional Pedagogy and Critical Classrooms in India and the UK (2020) (2020)
- It's maddening : re-conceptualizing embodiments of mental and physical distress
- Golightley Sarah
- Journal of Ethics in Mental Health, pp. 1-11 (2019)
- Evaluating the Side by Side Peer Support Programme
- Billsborough Julie, Currie Richard, Gibson Sarah, Gillard Steve, Golightley Sarah, Hazzard Raj, Mesaric Andreja, Mohammed Sajid, Pinfold Vanessa, Sweet Daryl, Thompson Rose, White Sarah
- (2017)
Teaching
I have a background in teaching and course design at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In 2023, I was a Teaching Fellow in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh and in 2021-2022 I worked with CAPS Independent Advocacy and Queen Marget University to establish the world's first Mad Studies degree programme.
At Strathclyde, I lead several undergraduate social work courses:
- Individuals, Communities and Society
- Psychology for Social Work
- Understanding Risk and Protection
Research Interests
My research focuses on the so-called 'troubled teen industry' in the USA. The troubled teen industry is a network of private residential youth reform programmes, including therapeutic boarding schools and wilderness therapy programmes. I have conducted mixed methods research on the retrospective accounts of former 'therapeutic boarding school' students. My work has uncovered emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and neglect, as well as numerous human rights violations within the industry. My dedication to researching and raising awareness about this topic is underlined by my own history of having been a therapeutic boarding school student.
Professional Activities
- 'Out of Control': Private 'troubled teen industry' facilities in the USA and the enabling of institutional child abuse
- Speaker
- 11/12/2024
- A Military-Style School for Troubled Teens Became a “Living Nightmare”
- Interviewee
- 20/8/2024
- Roundtable: Carceral power and state violence in ‘caring states’
- Speaker
- 11/7/2024
- How Is This Still Happening? Examining the History of the Congregate Care and the Troubled Teen Industry
- Speaker
- 18/4/2024
Contact
Dr
Sarah
Golightley
Lecturer
Social Work and Social Policy
Email: sarah.golightley@strath.ac.uk
Tel: Unlisted