Events & Talks
Upcoming Events & Talks
The Cultural Meanings of Insomnia
Keynote presentation at Somnambulations 2: Critical Approaches to Sleep, Montreal, Canada (26-27 June 2023)
Selected Past Events & Talks
Understanding and Reimagining Sleep and Its Disorders Workshop Series, February-April 2023
Through a hybrid workshop series, members of the public met with researchers and an artist to talk about the impact of sleep issues. Together, they discussed ways to increase awareness and improve the wellbeing of people who live with sleep disorders, and produced creative responses about sleep, which will be published later in the year as part of an online exhibition on this website.
Hot Takes, A World Sleep Day Roundtable organised by The Sociability of Sleep
On World Sleep Day 2023 (17th March) Dr Diletta De Cristofaro moderated an online roundtable featuring Jayson Porter, Kelton Minor, Arun Kumar, Benjamin Reiss, Devon Bate, and Sarah Barnes. The roundtable was organised by The Sociability of Sleep research-creation project.
27-28 June 2022, “Sleep and Digital Health: Multidisciplinary Perspectives” Online Conference
This online conference explored the nexus of sleep and digital health from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Click the button below to take a look at the programme.
Writing Sleep, talk at The Sociability of Sleep’s Sleep Salons
This salon, featuring Dr Diletta De Cristofaro and Julie Flygare, juxtaposed literary-critical explorations of sleep in contemporary fiction with the awareness- and empathy-building practices of life writing about sleep and sleep disorders. More information about The Sociability of Sleep research-creation project here.
Sleep Stories and the Science of Sleep, Durham Book Festival 2021
With Durham Book Festival, we commissioned leading British writers Salena Godden, Jenn Ashworth and Andrew McMillan to each write and record an exclusive short story inspired by the theme of sleep. Find out more about “Sleep Stories” and listen to the podcast series here.
To launch the initiative, a roundtable discussion took place on 9th October. The roundtable delved into the science and culture of sleep. Dr Diletta De Cristofaro was joined by Salena Godden, Prof Jason Ellis, and Dr Erik Hoel. Below you can watch a video collecting highlights of the conversation.
Il sonno è in crisi? Che cosa ci dice la cultura contemporanea
Talk in Italianby Dr Diletta De Cristofaro at MEETmeTONIGHT2021, part of the European Researchers’ Night, September 2021
The talk is also available as podcast.
“Are We in a Sleep Crisis? Perspectives from Contemporary Culture”
A talk at The Lit&Phil by Dr Diletta De Cristofaro, June 2021
Picture credit: Insomnia. Stephen Magrath. CC0 1.0 Universal
Forty Winks Café, part of Being Human Festival 2020
This online event on representations of sleep in contemporary culture and sleep health was held in partnership with New Writing North. The event was chaired by Claire Malcolm of New Writing North and featured talks by Prof Katy Shaw, Dr Diletta De Cristofaro, and Prof Jason Ellis. The café was part of Being Human Festival (November 2020), the UK’s only national festival of the humanities.
Forty Winks Café was selected as a case study for holding a successful Being Human Festival café. Read more here.