Dr. Sally Chivers described the opportunity to attend a recent international workshop in Spain as a “transformational experience.” The English professor from Trent was one of seven scholars from across the world and across the disciplines brought to the workshop hosted by the Institute for Society and Culture at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.
 
“Each talk had its own dedicated session, so we were able to develop a sustained conversation about contemporary emotional culture,” Professor Chivers said. “It was a great honour to participate, and it has changed my thinking about aging, about emotion, and about how we develop research ideas.”

The goal of the "Taking the Pulse of Our Times: Media, Therapy & Emotions” workshop was to probe the emotional climate of our times through the lens of movies and TV shows. Prof. Chiver’s paper was on Michael Haneke’s film Amour in relation to cultural panic about aging, the horror of death, and the endurance of love.

The workshop brought together historians, psychologists, and sociologists, communication sciences and film and media scholars for transdisciplinary debate about issues, which are either emblematic of, or relevant for the emotional cultures in contemporary postindustrial Western societies.

Posted on Thursday, December 4, 2014.