COMPOSING WORLDS
Humanities, Well-Being, and Health

University Fernando Pessoa

About the Project

The "Composing Worlds: Humanities, Well-being, and Health" network project consists of the assembling of a group of experts from various scientific and humanistic disciplines, exploring well-being and health in contemporary environments and technological societies. What worlds to compose, what relationships to define for contemporary living environments, for the overcoming of the rigid distinction between nature and culture, and for the promotion of an integrated vision of health and well-being, for both humans and non-humans?

There is growing evidence that most of the challenges faced by the 21st century, particularly in the field of well-being and health, are related to human realities and how they interact with the environment, with different cultures, with non-human beings, and technologies. Climate change, diseases linked to poverty and human migrations, healthcare systems increasingly demanded by democratic societies, artificial intelligence, health literacy, and citizen participation, are technical and social issues that require a broad understanding for creative solutions. The transformations of living beings and social environments through biotechnology and artificial intelligence, and their relationship with humans, necessitate a collective reconsideration of what it means to be human, exploring its potentials and limitations, and examining the connections with the non-human. It is likely that, in a not too distant future, the division between humanities, health sciences, and sciences such as engineering, ecology, or physics, will cease to exist. Students may receive training in these diverse disciplines from the beginning of their education. The syncretism resulting from these inter and transdisciplinary subjects calls for anthropological and critical reflection, keeping in mind their roots in ecological and social reality.

The "Composing Worlds" network project aims to address these questions and unfolds in two main phases. In the first phase, 12 researchers and university professors from three different universities were contacted, and agreed to participate in the project. The initial phase began in the year 2020, with the following goals:

i) The formation of a network of experts in the fields of humanities, environmental, social and health sciences;

ii) The participatory development of an interview script, for the generation of disciplinary and metadisciplinary thought, related to the broad field of humanities, well-being, and health;

iii) The analysis and the organization of the specialists' responses into key ideas, main themes, and cross-cutting thematic axes;

iv) The identification, for the second phase of the project, of interdisciplinary research and of academic, cultural and community outreach activities, developing the identified cross-cutting thematic axes.

The second phase of the project involves a network of 25 researchers from 5 universities, and began in the year 2021, with the following goals:

i) The publication of two ebooks, the first containing the authors' responses to the interview, and the second containing the project report;

ii) The editing and publication of books, papers and book chapters in national and international journals and publishers;

iii) The recording of a series of podcasts with guests from the fields of humanities, well-being, and health;

iv) The promotion of cross-cutting, interdisciplinary, and inter-institutional research projects;

v) The implementation of the educational activities, either in an academic context through postgraduate or specialized training, or through cultural outreach and community intervention.

Affiliation: Composing Worlds. Humanities, Well-being, and Health - Fernando Pessoa Foundation.

Team

Álvaro Campelo (UFP; CRIA-UM; FP-I3ID; FP-B2S)

Ana Gabriela Nogueira (UFP; Laboratório de Rádio)

Ana Isabel Sani (UFP: Criminologia, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais)

Carla Fonte (Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais - UFP)

Carla Sousa (UFP-HE; CES)

Diogo Guedes Vidal (Centre for Functional Ecology - Science for People & the Planet. TERRA Associate Laboratory. Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra)

Eduardo Paz Barroso (UFP; LabCom-UBI; FP-I3ID; FP-B2S)

Elsa Simões (UFP; LabCom-UBI; FP-I3ID; CLEPUL-UL; FP-B2S)

Fernando Barbosa (Lab. Neuropsicofisiologia-FPCE-UP)

Francisco Mesquita (UFP; CECS-UM)

Gloria Jollúskin (UFP; FP-I3ID; FP-B2S)

Hélder Silva Lopes (UM; Lab2PT; IN2PAST;IdRA-UB)

Irene Monteiro (HE-FFP, SPAT, Psicologia Clínica e da Saúde)

Isabel Silva (UFP; FP-I3ID; FP-B2S)

José Calheiros (UFP; FP-I3ID; CES)

Juliana Gatti-Rodrigues (FC-UP; Instituto Árvores Vivas, Brasil)

Laura Nunes (UFP; Criminologia, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais)

Maria José Curado (FC-UP; Observatório da Paisagem; CIBIO-InBIO)