Today's post is provided by Project PERFECT's Co-investigator Michael Larkin from Aston University. In the post he outlines his plans for the coming months of the project.
Weāve had a good start to this final block
already, with Rachel Gunn and Magdalena Antrobus both successfully defending
their theses at viva before Christmas, and subsequently being awarded their
doctorates. Iāve really enjoyed working with Lisa Bortolotti and these two brilliant,
creative and insightful researchers. It has been really exciting to see the
interdisciplinary nature of their work take on such a distinctive character: I
hope that we will see the the benefits of this in future work, post-PERFECT,
too.
In Magdalenaās work, the interdisciplinary quality has taken the form of a very rigorous engagement with existing psychological evidence about the nature and context of low mood. In Rachelās thesis, it involved conducting interviews, and engaging with phenomenological data, about the experience of unusual beliefs. One of the things that Iām most looking forward to for this yearās work is finishing the paper that Rachel and I have started, based on some this analysis.
In Magdalenaās work, the interdisciplinary quality has taken the form of a very rigorous engagement with existing psychological evidence about the nature and context of low mood. In Rachelās thesis, it involved conducting interviews, and engaging with phenomenological data, about the experience of unusual beliefs. One of the things that Iām most looking forward to for this yearās work is finishing the paper that Rachel and I have started, based on some this analysis.
I will also continue to work with Lisa this year on co-supervising Valeria Mottaās very timely work on loneliness and solitude. I am excited to see how Valeriaās work ā which will also involve interviews and their analysis ā will further develop our emerging template for a hybrid practice of philosophy and psychology. Valeria is attending our Phenomenology of Health and Relationships (PHaR) group at Aston too, and this is helping me to keep the spectrum of loneliness-connectedness in mind, as a theme which links much of my work.
On that theme, I hope to conduct an
interview with Niobe Way, for the project blog, in a few weeksā time. Niobeās
work on boysā friendships is brilliant and inspiring. On my mindās-eyeās
bookshelf, her book Deep Secrets sits
next to Avril Taylorās Women Drug-Users,
and Stuart Hauserās Out of the Woods,
as an example of the way that the very best academic writing can be accessible and in-depth and insightful.
A number of other PERFECT-related
activities are on the horizon. Iām writing a post for the project blog about
the Power Threat Meaning Framework. Iām supervising a new PhD student at Aston
(Lindsey Sharratt), for whom Iāll be working with a new collaborator there
(Nathan Ridout).
Although Lindseyās project is not a formal part of PERFECT, her topic (memory and mood) and my interest in it, is a direct result of participating in the PERFECT workshop on memory in Oxford. In particular, the approach taken by John Sutton, which integrated narrative, relationship and memory, really set me up for some very productive conversations with Nathan and Lindsey. So it will be interesting to see how this ties in with the themes and activites of our last year.
Although Lindseyās project is not a formal part of PERFECT, her topic (memory and mood) and my interest in it, is a direct result of participating in the PERFECT workshop on memory in Oxford. In particular, the approach taken by John Sutton, which integrated narrative, relationship and memory, really set me up for some very productive conversations with Nathan and Lindsey. So it will be interesting to see how this ties in with the themes and activites of our last year.
Finally, Iāll be continuing to work on
projects around relationships and mental health, and on co-design, and where
relevant, to feed these in to our conversations about PERFECT. Weāre having
lots of ideas about the end-of-project event at the moment too, so I will
helping with that as well.