Microbes on the Mind
Research project: What does microbiome research mean for our understanding of mental illness and its treatment? How is meaning created within and across the domains of science, media culture, and personal experience?
About
In the last decade, a new scientific research field has grown up around a startling insight: the trillions of bacteria that live in our gut seem to affect how the brain develops and functions. Whilst this scientific research is still at an early stage, results are already escaping the laboratory and catching the attention of journalists, doctors, and patients alike.
This research project therefore asks: what does microbiome research mean for our understanding of mental illness and its treatment? How is meaning created within and across the domains of science, media culture, and personal experience? We bring our varied disciplinary backgrounds and methodologies together to address these questions. Methods also include open, experimental workshops in the Mind the Gut exhibition at Medical Museion, designed through collaboration with creative writers. (Read more about the Mind the Gut exhibition by clicking here)
Microbes on the Mind is supported by a Velux Foundation Core Group Velux Award (read more about the award by clicking here) to Louise Whiteley (PI) and Adam Bencard (Co-PI). It is embedded within the Medical Museion, Department of Public Health, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR – read more about the Center by clicking here).
Archive
See our articles, blogs and research here.
Read more
People involved in the research project: Tine Friis, Adam Bencard, Louise Whiteley, 1. Associate Professor in Medical Science Communication, Adam Bencard, co-PI. Associate Professor in Medical Humanities, Andréa Wictoria Wiszmeg, Post.doc., PhD of Ethnology, , PhD Fellow, cand.psych., Guston Sondin-Kung, Phd Fellow, Joana Formosinho, MSc Biology. PhD Fellow (STS/ HPS), Cecilie Glerup, Research Manager, PhD COLLABORATORS James Wilkes, Visiting Scholar. Writer and Researcher, PhD, Jenell Johnson, Visiting Scholar. Associate Professor of Rhetorics, Politics, and Culture at the University of Madison-Wisconsin. Marie Chimwemwe Degnbol, Podcaster.
People
Louise Whiteley, 1. Associate Professor in Medical Science Communication, Adam Bencard, co-PI. Associate Professor in Medical Humanities, Andréa Wictoria Wiszmeg, Post.doc., PhD of Ethnology, Tine Friis, PhD Fellow, cand.psych., Guston Sondin-Kung, Phd Fellow, Joana Formosinho, MSc Biology. PhD Fellow (STS/ HPS), Cecilie Glerup, Research Manager, PhD
COLLABORATORS
James Wilkes, Visiting Scholar. Writer and Researcher, PhD, Jenell Johnson, Visiting Scholar. Associate Professor of Rhetorics, Politics, and Culture at the University of Madison-Wisconsin. Marie Chimwemwe Degnbol, Podcaster.
Contact
We’re always keen to hear from others interested in the connections between mind and microbiome, and their relation to more environmentally-entangled concepts of health – from any disciplinary perspective. We’re also on the hunt for interesting exhibitions, media, and events on this theme. To get in touch with us, use the details below – or explore our People page to see who might be most relevant to your enquiry.
Project Lead: Associate Professor Louise Whiteley, lowh@sund.ku.dk
Project Manager: Cecilie Glerup, cecilie.glerup@sund.ku.dk
Supported by
