"You're crazy!" How language affects our understanding of mental illness | Niyant Vora | TEDxIWU

Despite its prevalence, mental illness and those who have it are still largely misunderstood and stigmatized. In his talk, Niyant asks us to examine a piece of our implicit bias we may have missed: our language. Niyant was born in Mumbai, India, and has lived in the U.S. since 2000. He's a biology major and german minor at Illinois Wesleyan University. On campus, he currently works as the lead Observer for the IWU Mark Evans Observatory, and as german tutor. He volunteers regularly at the local hospital.

While at IWU, Niyant's had the opportunity to participate in a series of research projects in biology, physics, psychology, and german, many of which are related to his interest in understanding the human mind. Currently, Niyant is tackling three projects: an honors thesis in german, a thesis in psychology, and his own personal research project, which he's in the process of patenting.

In his spare time, Niyant enjoys swimming, (astro)photography, playing the ukulele, and learning languages––he's currently learning Latin, Hawaiian, and Sanskrit. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx