Current Intersections of Culture, Language and Wellbeing 14.5.

Hai Nguyen
Kevään viimeinen etäseminaarikerta! Tule kuuntelemaan kolme esitelmää aiheesta Mind and Body in Health and Culture.

Current Intersections of Culture, Language and Wellbeing on monitieteinen etäseminaarisarja, jota järjestää yhteistyössä kolme Turun yliopiston  tutkimusverkostoa: LaWe, KULTVA sekä Kulttuurin ja terveyden tutkimusyksikkö. Seminaarisarjan tarkoituksena on laajentaa verkostoja ja tuoda yhteen kansainvälistä tutkimusta sosiaalitieteiden, humanististen tieteiden ja kielitieteiden saralla liittyen terveyteen ja hyvinvointiin. Seminaarisarja jatkuu tuttuun tapaan Zoomissa. Seminaaria on myös mahdollista seurata yhdessä muiden kanssa Turun yliopistolla, Arcanumilla huoneessa A127 Joki.
Seminar series Current Intersections of Culture, Language and Wellbeing together with the research seminar of Research Center for Culture and Health presents:
 
Mind and Body in Health and Culture
Time: 14.5.2024, 14:00-16:00 (EEST / UTC+03:00)
 
 
NB! There is also a possibility to follow the seminar together in Arcanum (Arcanuminkuja 1), seminar room A127 Joki (University of Turku, Finland).
 
 
In this seminar we will focus on Mind and Body in Health and Culture through various topics: diversifying psychology in African fiction, dance movement therapy ans its effects on quality of life and body image among widows and widowers, and working with and for Indigenous people in research.

 
The seminar series Current Intersections of Culture, Language and Wellbeing is a multidisciplinary online seminar organized by three networks from the University of Turku, Finland: the Cultural Interaction Researcher Network KULTVA, the Centre of Language and Wellbeing (LaWe), and the Research Center for Culture and Health. The aim of the seminar is to foster international networking and research collaboration between social sciences, humanities, and linguistics, focusing on topics related to health and wellbeing.

Presentations:
Christina Slopek-Hauff, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf
“Against Psychiatric Imperialism: Diversifying Psychology in African Fiction”

When transcultural psychiatrist Suman Fernando speaks of “psychiatric imperialism”, he means “the international use of [western-based] psychiatry in the context of  western political and military domination and the ethos of white  superiority” (1991, 4). His concept combines historical as well as  contemporary dimensions, for instance the subsumption and  marginalization of local psychological knowledge in imperial times, which is ongoing in  contemporary hegemonic psychology. As this paper will show, contemporary  Anglophone African literatures are involved in the renegotiation of  psychological knowledge as they articulate transculturally informed visions of psychology, mind and body and frequently reaffirm  local knowledge systems in an effort to diversify psychology.

Silja McNamara, Tampereen yliopisto
“The Effect of Dance Movement Therapy Interventions on the Quality of Life and Body Image of Bereaved Widows/Widowers”

This research is a mixed methods study to explore the use of dance movement therapy within bereaved widows/widowers. Grief has a tremendous effect on the whole embodied sense of self and may  cause many physical symptoms. The physical effects of grief are well established in science, yet there is not much research done on  therapeutic interventions that explore grief through body and movement. Recent Finnish studies on dance movement therapy (DMT)  with people with cancer indicate that DMT has a positive effect on the  participant’s wellbeing. Furthermore, another Finnish study concludes  that DMT is an effective treatment for people with depression having a positive effect on the participants’ body image.  Therefore, it is crucial to research how a creative and a body focused  form of therapy, DMT can support widowed people’s wellbeing through  integrating grief as a part of their lives. This research will respond to the gap in DMT and bereavement research.

Pauline Norris, Va’a o Tautai – Centre for Pacific Health – University of Otago
“Working With, and For, Indigenous People in Research: Experiences From New Zealand”
Professor Pauline Norris is a sociologist and health services researcher whose primary research interest is access to medicines. She is a Research Professor at Va’a o Tautai – Centre for Pacific Health at the University of Otago, and Research Advisor at Te Hauora o Turanganui a Kiwa (Turanga Health), a Māori health provider in New Zealand. In this seminar she will talk about her experiences with two recent projects: a randomised controlled trial of prescription copayments, and an evaluation of Turanga Health’s Covid response, and what she has learnt about working with, and for, Indigenous people in research.