Reading for Life
Effects from Shared Reading on Health and Wellbeing
A research seminar organized by Forum for Medical Humanities in collaboration with the Department of ALM
Date, Time, and Venue
Date
April 7, 2017
Time
9.15–12.00
Venue
The Rausing Room, English Park Campus, Thunbergsvägen 3P, Building 6, room 3025
Registration
Please sign up for participation to anna.tunlid@idehist.uu.se no later than March 31.

Programme
- 9.15–9.45 Dr Jane Davis, The Reader Organisation: The concept of Shared Reading and the work of The Reader Organisation.
- 9.45–10.45 Professor Philip Davis, University of Liverpool: Reading in Action, Reading for Life: a demonstration of research from the Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society (CRILS), University of Liverpool.
10.45–11.00 Coffee
- 11.00–12.00 Dr Mette Stenberg and Dr Nicolai Ladegaard, Aarhus University. Time to Read: What are the mental health effects of Shared Reading on a population of vulnerable adults. Presentation of research hypothesis, assessment battery and intervention design.
Chair: Kerstin Rydbeck
Presentations
Dr Jane Davis (e-mail) has a Ph.D in English Literature, Visionary Realism: from George Eliot to Doris Lessing. She founded The Reader in 1997, is the head of this organisation and has led the development of Shared Reading in Europe and beyond since 2008.
Professor Philip Davis (e-mail) is the Director of CRILS: Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society at the University of Liverpool. Ph.D in English Literature. His recent work is on the relation of serious literature to mental health in the broadest sense. His most recent work includes Reading and The Reader in Oxford University Press’s series The Literary Agenda (on the uses of literature in the 21st century) of which he is general editor. He has just published George Eliot: The Transferred Life on what it means to be a psychological novelist.
Dr Mette Steenberg (e-mail), postdoc-researcher, Interacting Minds Centre, University of Aarhus. Originally trained in literature and cognitive semiotics, she is currently doing an intervention study in public library settings investigating the effects of shared reading on a population of vulnerable adults. Her primary focus of analysis is how reading engagement relates to outcome. Founder and chair of Laeseforeningen in Denmark.
Dr Nicolai Ladegaard (e-mail), Clinical psychologist and researching psychologist at Aarhus University Hospital, Risskov. PhD in Psychology, in the area of social cognitive impairment in major depressive disorder. Clinical base is at an inward affective disorders unit, Q2. His research focuses broadly on affective disorders and ways to monitor symptoms and new novel treatment approaches.
Forum for Medical Humanities is an initiative to support collaboration between humanities, social sciences, medicine and pharmacy at Uppsala University