Interdisciplinary perspectives on Mental Health: research networking event with the Research School of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences (BCN)

Disorders of mental health are a complex problem caused by individual, societal and economic factors. Moreover, it is a particularly pronounced problem in the Northern Netherlands. At the University of Groningen, numerous researchers do work on aspects of mental health: from neurological studies to behavioral interventions or philosophical reflections on what mental health even is, how to study it, and how more just institutions could promote it. It is a topic that cuts across the medical and social sciences and humanities, and thus also an interesting test case for how to improve inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations. This get-together presents different perspectives on mental health, presented in 3-minute pitches, followed by drinks. The aim is for researchers to get to know each other, but also for master students to think about possible interdisciplinary thesis topics. Ideally, it will lead to new combinations of interdisciplinary research teams for new grant ideas, new supervisory teams for thesis supervision, and new insights from interdisciplinary explorations.

Confirmed pitches

• Daphne Brandenburg (Philosophy) - "Mental Health, Freedom, & Responsibility"

• Marie-José van Tol (UMCG) - "Failure to control"

• Markus Eronen (Philosophy) - "Mental disorders and causal complexity"

• Hanna van Loo (UMCG) - "Why do psychiatric disorders run in families?"

• Laura Bringmann (BSS) - "The future of mental health research: Conceptual clarity before complex statistics"

• Martien Kas (FSE) - "The precision psychiatry roadmap; towards a biology-informed framework for mental disorders."

• Hanneke Muthert (RCM) - "Spiritual Attributions to Deep Impact Experiences"

• Lisa Herzog (Philosophy) - "Capturing the costs of bad work - and how it relates to mental health"

• Harriette Riese (UMCG) - "Personalization Matters"

• Andreas Schmidt (Philosophy) - "Should we make people happier through meditation and yoga?"