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Cultures of Euphoria Networking Meeting

Building a network focused on the relationship between joy, mental health, and well-being through ethnographic case studies.

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1 March 2024

Grant

Grant: Grand Challenges Mental Health and Wellbeing Network Building
Year awarded: 2023-24
Amount awarded: £2,360.00

Academics

  • Dr Joanna Cook, Social and Historical Sciences 
  • Professor Tanya Luhrmann, Stanford University 

The Cultures of Euphoria Networking Meeting brought together academics for a one-day workshop focused on the relationship between joy, mental health, and well-being through ethnographic case studies. By emphasizing joy rather than pathology, the workshop aimed to reframe mental health discussions to highlight the importance of human connection and flourishing, addressing a significant gap in qualitative cross-cultural research. With diverse presentations from scholars across the globe, the event fostered collaboration and set the stage for developing full research projects. 

By focussing on joy rather than social problems and pathologies, this project reframed how we think about mental health by comparing culturally diverse ethnographic cases of joy and wellbeing. The Cultures of Euphoria Networking Meeting gathered interdisciplinary scholars for a one-day workshop to explore joy and well-being through ethnographic case studies in a cross-cultural perspective. Further details about the event are available in this report.

The project successfully gathered scholars from across UCL faculties who research joy, establishing synergies across History of Science, Literature, Theology and Anthropology. This introductory meeting enabled Dr. Cook to develop The Joy Network, which seeks to continue this collaboration across the social sciences and humanities.

Image credit: iStock

Outputs and Impact

  • Development of interdisciplinary network
  • Workshop report
  • Successful application for follow-on funding from European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant to support the project, Cultures of Joy in the Metacrisis: Resistance, Resilience, and Repair in Troubled Times which investigates joy. The project will gather data on the value, experience and expression of joy across cultures, and develop a framework for understanding and researching joy.

Looking Ahead

The Cultures of Euphoria Networking Meeting confirmed the viability of a larger follow-on project. The discussions led to Dr Cook's ERC Advanced Grant application, which names key collaborators identified from meeting participants. This follow-on project will pioneer a combination of qualitative and participatory research methods to foster a positive research culture. By modelling new and more expansive ways to conduct collaborative research with participants and communities, the larger project emphasises societal impact and the possibility of change.

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