Engagement

In 2016, 2017 and 2018 we organised and hosted academic workshops on belief, memory, and confabulation to discuss key project topics with scholars in philosophy, psychology, and psychiatry.

We also organised several public engagement events and focus groups with mental health service providers, users, and carers; we received feedback from people with lived experience of mental illness and from mental health campaigners and activists.

 

Timeline of events

26th June 2019, 5:30-7:30pm, ERI Foyer, University of Birmingham: "Pouring Water through a Telescope", exhibition celebrating the power of imagination to promote self-discovery and healing. Co-organised with the Art Recovery Group at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts. Meet the artists! Part of the Arts and Science Festival 2019 and the Green Heart Festival. 

18th June 2019, 6-8:30pm, Midlands Arts CentreFilm Screening of 'Red Hands' by Francesco Filippi, followed by panel discussion on youth mental health. The film celebrates the power of imagination to enable growth and redemption. Co-hosted with the University of Birmingham Institute for Mental Health. Part of the Arts and Science Festival 2019

22nd-23th May 2019: Phenomenology of Health and Relationship Conference hosted by Aston University and organised by Michael Larkin. Theme is Creativity and Affect. Sponsored by project PERFECT.

17th March 2019: Eugenia Lancellotta and Matilde Aliffi represented PERFECT at a special event for Brain Awareness Week 2019: Birmingham’s ThinkTank 'Meet the Brain Experts'. They talked about their research on delusions and emotions.

30th January 2019: the PERFECT team participated in a special event organised by Radical Sabbatical on The Unconditioned Mind. Valeria Motta talked about the benefits of solitude and loneliness. Eugenia Lancellotta talked about the benefits of delusions. Matilde Aliffi talked about whether we are epistemically responsible for our emotions.

24th October 2018, 1-2pm, ERI Building: Project visitor at the Philosophy WIP seminar, Krystyna Bielecka (Warsaw) on "Are confabulations representational? A case of Korsakoff Syndrome".

15th October 2018, 5-6:30pm, Hornton Grange: Book launch of Delusions in Context, edited by Lisa Bortolotti for Palgrave. Speakers include Richard Bentall, Rachel Upthegrove, Lisa Bortolotti, and Matthew Broome.

8th October 2018, 1-2pm, Aston Webb WG12: Project visitor at the IMH Lunchtime Seminar, Joint with the School of Psychology, Chris Moulin (Grenoble) on “Adventures in subjective experience: The not-so strange case of déjà vu”.

10th September 2018, European Society for Philosophy and Psychology Annual Conference in Rijeka (Croatia): Epistemic Innocence symposium featuring Sophie Stammers, Kathy Puddifoot, Ema Sullivan-Bissett, Valeria Motta, and Matilde Aliffi.

23rd May 2018: PERFECT 2018: Confabulation Workshop (Oxford, UK) featuring William Hirstein, Sarah Robins, Sophie Stammers, Derek Strijbos, Leon de Bruin and Louise Moody.

12th March 2018: Public engagement event "Stop, Start, Pause: Keeping Mood on Track" as part of the Arts and Science Festival at the University of Birmingham. Talks by expert by experience Chris and clinical psychologist Elizabeth Newton.

26th January 2018: Philosophy of Mind and Psychological Distress, Joint workshop with Mind in Camden and the Hearing the Voice Network in London, led by Sophie Stammers.

22nd November 2017: IAS funded workshop on Challenges to Wellbeing: The Experience of Loneliness and Epistemic Injustice in the Clinical Encounter, in collaboration with the Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham.

13th November 2017: Talk by Jordi Fernandez, G52, ERI, 3:30-5:30pm.

From 27th October to 1st December 2017: Sophie Stammers leads six workshops for the London Hearing Voices Network on the themes of project PERFECT. Funded by a University of Birmingham CAL Impact Acceleration Fund and project PERFECT and in collaboration with Mind in Camden.

16th June 2017: Workshop with Mental Health Foundation on mental health stigma, British Library London. Supported by the College of Arts and Law Impact Fund.

9th June 2017: Cognition, Affect, and Motivation: Conceptual and Empirical Issues, mini-workshop at the University of Birmingham, featuring Matthew Broome and Maura Tumulty. Sponsored by the Mind Association.

5th May 2017: One-day workshop, PERFECT 2017, on Memory at Jesus College Cambridge (UK), featuring Kirk Michaelian, Dorothea Debus, Jordi Fernandez, John Sutton, and Kathy Puddifoot.

27th March 2017: Talk by Kengo MIyazono, "Alief and Pushmi-Pullyu Representation", ERI 149, 3:15-5pm.

13th March 2017: Public engagement event "Saving Land and Water: Shaping Perceptions of Climate Change" as part of the Arts and Science Festival at the University of Birmingham. Talks by Ulrike Hahn and Anna Bright.

26th July 2016: Symposium on Theories of Delusion Formation at the International Congress of Psychology, Yokohama (Japan), featuring Phil Gerrans, Rachel Gunn, Rochelle Cox, Eriko Sugimori, and Kengo Miyazono. Chaired by Kathy Puddifoot.

12th May 2016: Focus Group 1 on Belief, led by Michael Larkin and Magdalena Antrobus, University of Birmingham.

14th March 2016: Public engagement event "Tricked by Memory" as part of the Arts and Science Festival at the University of Birmingham. Talks by Magdalena Antrobus, Anneli Jefferson, and Kathy Puddifoot now available on YouTube.

4th-5th February 2016: Two-day workshop, PERFECT 2016, on False but Useful Beliefs, London (UK), featuring David Papineau, Anandi Hattiangadi, Lisa Bortolotti, Neil Van Leeuwen, Kathy Puddifoot, Ema Sullivan-Bissett, Jesse Summers, David Kovacs, Lubomira Radoilska, and Kate Nolfi.

27th November 2015: Belief and Emotion Mini-Workshop featuring Neil Levy, Carolyn Price, and Allan Hazlett, PR52 LT1, University of Birmingham from 11:30. This event was also funded by the Mind Association.

1st July 2015: Session on the Function of Delusions as part of the Royal College of Psychiatrists International Congress, Birmingham (UK), featuring Philip Corlett, Richard Bentall, and Lisa Bortolotti. 

30th June 2015: Delusions Lunchtime Seminar, Joint with the School of Psychology (Aberrant Experience and Beliefs Research Theme) with Philip Corlett and Kengo Miyazono.

22nd-23rd June 2015: Mentoring session at the SWIP conference in York (UK), featuring Hanna Pickard.

16th March 2015: Public engagement event on sight, sound, and mental health as part of the Arts and Science Festival at the University of Birmingham.