
Suze Berkhout (She/Her/They) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and a Clinician-Investigator in the University Health Network’s Centre for Mental Health based out of Toronto General Hospital (TGH). She is affiliated with the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto, and is a researcher with the Wilson Centre based out of UHN. Suze completed a combined MD/PhD at the University of British Columbia, supported by CIHR and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). She has expertise in feminist philosophy and qualitative research experience that draws on ethnographic and narrative frames. In her most recent work, this has included using visual arts to explore unspoken aspects of narrative experience (Berkhout and Stern 2019). Her research and scholarly activity come together under two umbrellas: (1) exploring how knowledge practices in biomedicine intersect with social identities and agency in different clinical populations, shaping lived experience and the outcomes of medical practices themselves; (2) innovating qualitative methodologies to address research questions at the intersection of ontology and epistemology. Dr. Berkhout has published numerous peer reviewed articles, book chapters, and reviews in a range of journals, including the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Medical Humanities, Disability Studies Quarterly, Social Theory and Practice; she has co-edited two special issues of Ars Medica, a literary arts and health humanities journal. Dr. Berkhout has supervised psychiatry residency trainees in research methods and sits on the supervisory committee for a trainee in Medical Anthropology (PhD program, University of Victoria). As a PI, Berkhout has received funding from the New Frontiers Research Fund (NFRF) for research bridging transplant medicine and feminist/crip technoscience; she has received University of Toronto funding for a genealogical exploration of the concept of treatment resistance in mental health; and holds departmental funding through a humanities education award to develop a graphic medicine curriculum piece communicating the intersection of neuroscience and bioethics. She is currently co-investigator on four funded projects: a SSHRC-funded project exploring Placebo/Nocebo Studies through feminist philosophical methods; a CIHR funded-project examining psychosocial needs in Stroke utilized a mixed methods design; a mixed-methods study of women’s sexual health needs in first episode psychosis; and work examining advocacy and ethics training for residents in psychiatry and family medicine. Dr. Berkhout has received departmental and faculty awards for her research and scholarly activities, including the Chisholm Memorial Fellowship and Mary Seeman Award for Medical Humanities.