Renewing Phenomenological Psychopathology Project

International Exchange Fellowship This fellowship allowed an individual to travel to sites across our network in order to undertake a placement for up to two months. This funding was for academics in the field of phenomenological psychopathology or allied fields, who wanted to develop collaborations with leading researchers, transform their careers and shape the direction of future research. International Exchange Fellows had the opportunity to work with international colleagues, gain vital experience in multi-/inter-disciplinary working and extend their international networks. We provided a £3000 stipend per International Exchange (IE) Fellow to cover travel, accommodation and any visa costs.  While we encouraged applicants to consider choosing one of the existing Network members, applicants were welcome to nominate an alternative suitable institution if there was interest in becoming a member of our Network. Applicants were required to submit: • A letter from the proposed host ...

 Small Grants and Writing Retreats The Small Grant Award was available until April 2023.  It offered seed-corn funding that allowed a team of scholars, across disciplines and countries, to form around a particular research topic and to develop new work that integrated different disciplines and accounts of lived experience of mental disorder. The aim was to enable a group of, for example, researchers, clinicians, academics in the humanities and experts by experience to pursue substantial competitive research leading to publication and/or work towards major grant applications. Two Small Research Grants of £10,000 each were available, and two Virtual Writing Retreats supported by the Project Team.   For example, the Small Grant could cover a six-month small scale project of an interdisciplinary, international Group, the running of which requires a part-time Research Assistant who could, for instance, offer support for short-term data collection or for the undertaking of...

Co-production Scheme ‘Co-production’ in mental health research acknowledges the valuable knowledge and expertise of people with lived experience of psychiatric illness or neurodiversity. It champions the production of joint research between experts by experience and academics/clinicians, who will contribute their insights equally (we recognise that clinicians and academics themselves may have lived experience of mental ill health, and those with lived experience may have existing clinical/academic skills).  Through our co-production scheme, experts by experience would be linked with one or more researchers from our international network, with the aim of co-producing a piece of work on the theme of renewing phenomenological psychopathology. This work may involve, for instance, a renewing of the methodology used in phenomenological psychopathology, or drawing out aspects of the lived experience of psychiatric illness that have previously been obscured.  Beyond the co-production ...

Interdisciplinary Expansion Sandpit We provided a £1500 stipend for researchers in phenomenological psychopathology, or other allied disciplines, who wanted to spark new ideas in the field by organising a sandpit event. A sandpit event is one where academics from disparate academic and institutional backgrounds collaborate in creative ways over a set period of time. The provided funding can be used for either online or in person support. The goal of such an event is to generate innovative, interdisciplinary research groups and projects under a given theme. Under this project, the sandpit event would (either online or in-person) bring together interdisciplinary researchers (for example, from the humanities, social sciences, lived experience, clinical practice) outside of phenomenology and mental health to expand the disciplines in the group, and to develop new groupings and responses to our problem of renewing and reinvigorating phenomenological psychopathology.  Applicants had to h...

The RPP Advisory board, made up of 23 experts in phenomenology from across the globe, met regularly throughout the project.  They will continue to meet after the project end, in order to discuss next steps in the field of phenomenological psychopathology research. The board includes: Professor Kevin Aho, Department of Communication and Philosophy, Florida Gulf Coast University, U.S.A Professor Lucy Bolton, Film Studies Department, Queen Mary University, London, UK Professor Havi Carel, Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, UK Dr Robert Chapman, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Professor Mona Gupta, Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, Canada Professor Kouji Ishihara, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan  Dr Sofia Jeppsson, Umeå University, Sweden Dr Wouter Kusters, Netherlands Professor Matshepo Matoane, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa Professor Guilherme Messas, Cas...

Knowledge Exchange Workshops & Events Award Workshops and knowledge exchange events aimed to bring together international and interdisciplinary partners to collaborate and to develop new methodologies in phenomenological psychopathology. Two awards of up to £3000 were offered for in-person workshop, which are used to cover organisational expenses (e.g. the speakers’ travel expenses, accommodation and catering). Virtual workshops receive operational support from the project team for their organisation and delivery, as well as input and direction from the project leaders.  Following the completion of the knowledge exchange event, awardees are required to submit a 750-word summary detailing the outputs of the event. Some of the award winners include: Paul Lodge Paul Lodge is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Whilst most of his professional work has been in Early Modern Philosophy, he has had a bipolar diagnosis for 30 years and spent much of that time engagin...

The Renewing Phenomenological Psychopathology was an International Exchange Award funded by Wellcome from April 2022 to October 2024. Even though the project has formally ended, much activity has continued to flourish afterwards: RPP newsletter In order to maintain the relationships developed over the course of the Renewing Phenomenological Psychopathology project, we will be sending out bi-monthly newsletters to let you know what other network members are up to, any ongoing projects or recent publications, and other calls and information network members might be interested in. Email us at phenompsych@contacts.bham.ac.uk to join the mailing list. Project EPIC Project EPIC  (Epistemic Injustice in Healthcare) is a new large-scale 6  year research project funded by Wellcome, based at the Universities of Bristol (PI Havi Carel, Co-I Sheelagh McGuinness), Birmingham (Co-Is Lisa Bortolotti and Matthew Broome) and Nottingham (Co-I Ian James Kidd) with further partners at the Univers...

2025 Special Issue in Philosophical Psychology: Renewing Phenomenological Psychopathology ; Guest edited by Lucienne Spencer, Matthew Broome & Giovanni Stanghellini (2025) 2024 Baiasu, R. (2024)  Making Sense of Things in Dementia  in  Phenomenology, Neuroscience and Clinical Practice. Contributions to Phenomenology, Francesca Brencio (ed.) Broome, M.R. (2024) Phenomenology, delusions and justice. World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 23(2), 239-240.   Stanghellini, G., & Ikkos, G. (2024). Images of depression in Charles Baudelaire: clinical understanding in the context of poetry and social history. BJPsych Bulletin, 48(1), 33-37. 2023 Faccio, E., Pocobello, R., Vitelli, R., & Stanghellini, G. (2023). Grounding co‐writing: an analysis of the theoretical basis of a new approach in mental health care. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 30(1), 123-131. Kidd, I. J., Spencer, L., & Carel, H. (202...

A core goal of the project was to establish an international network of academics in the area of phenomenological psychopathology. Applicants for RPP funded awards could then apply to specific sites that were part of this network, as potential host institutions for Knowledge Exchange Fellowships, events, research groups, mentoring schemes or other project related activities. These activities led, for example, to the production of academic outputs such as papers, publications, translations or major grant applications.  Network members include: 1.    Orygen , Melbourne, Australia  (Contact: Professor Barnaby Nelson ) 2.   Santa Casa de São Paulo School of Medical Sciences, Brazil (Contact: Professor Guilherme Messas , Head of the Postgraduate Program on Phenomenological Psychopathology) 3.   Centre for Health, Humanities and Science; and the Department of Philosophy, Bristol University, U.K.  (Contact: Professor Havi Carel ) 4.   Depa...