PULSE Network Seminar 21 May 2026
Next Pulse Network – Medical & Health Humanities seminar: 21 May 3-5pm University of Amsterdam in collaboration with the Queer Analysis research group.
Featuring presentations by Hein van den Berg and Mariana Gusso Nickel on the history of psychiatry and the histories of masculinity and cancer.
Hein van den Berg – The Origins of Emil Kraepelin’s Comparative Psychiatry and his Travels to Java and the USA
Emil Kraepelin, one of the formative influences on present-day psychiatry, undertook research in psychiatric hospitals in Southeast Asia (1904) and the USA (1925). Kraepelin pioneered research into what he called comparative psychiatry, investigating, among others, the influence of cultural factors on psychopathology (Jilek 1995, Engstrom and Crozier 2018). This article analyzes the origins of Kraepelin’s comparative psychiatry.
Hein van den Berg obtained his PhD at the VU Amsterdam in 2011, with a prize-winning dissertation on Kant’s conception of proper science and Kant’s philosophy of biology. After obtaining a grant from the KNAW for research on the history of biology at the TU Dortmund, he became assistant professor at the ILLC of the University of Amsterdam in 2016. He does research on the history and philosophy of logic, biology, and psychiatry.
Mariana Gusso Nickel – “A Walk in The Forest with Nothing but my Body”:
Researching the Role of Masculinties in Narrative Meaning-Making Processes by Ayas Living with and After Cancer
How do masculinities play a role in experiences of narrative disruption and meaning-making practices of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) living with/after cancer? For this participatory arts-based project, set up as a collaboration between Amsterdam UMC and the F|Fort Foundation, 15 male-identifying AYAs were invited to take photos of their daily lives using Photovoice and to participate in a lifeline interview.
Images were used by participants as prompts to articulate complex illness experiences, identify (pre-reflexive) expectations associated with gender in their daily lives, and lastly, as a mirror, facilitating identification with their renewed life-stories.
Mariana Gusso Nickel is a PhD candidate at the Contingency, Culture and Oncology research line, at the Department of Medical Oncology, Amsterdam UMC.
Next pulse seminar will be held on June 18, where four PHD’s in medical & health humanities present their work.
For more information on the Pulse Network and their events, please visit their LinkedIn page.
