Save the Date: Aesthetics in Mental Health Seminar

4th March 2026, St Catherine’s College, Oxford.

‘Mental Health in Contemporary Western Aesthetics’

Contemporary Western aesthetics embraces aesthetic experience that is participatory, immersive and connective with oneself and through this, with others and the environments we meet them in. Such encounters are central in healthcare practice. 

This seminar will address why awareness of such aesthetic experience matters in mental health and wellbeing. This day long programme will include a range of speakers covering: a brief overview of the historical background of this field and the basic underpinning ideas; aspects of other fields that may be relevant to healthcare care such as environmental, social and everyday aesthetics, film, the arts, storytelling and literature; perspectives from both academic thought and practice-based experience.

Further details will be announced in the next academic term.