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Percieving after Concieving

Perceiving after Conceiving: What internal body perceptions and sensations mean for pregnancy and post-partum nutrition and health for parents and for the next generation

29-30 May 2024

This symposium will bring together three groups of researchers and experts: one group focused on the social determinants of health in the earliest stages of the human life course (i.e., just before conception, through pregnancy, and through infancy), one focused on human food and nutrition, and the third focused on measuring and visualizing internal and chemosensory perceptions of bodily functions and experiences. There’s good reason to intuit that pregnancy and lactation alter these kinds of sensations and perceptions and that such sensations and perceptions alter pregnancy and peri-natal nutrition and health, but we don’t yet know whether or to what extent that’s actually the case. So, please bring your perspectives and expertise on one of these areas of inquiry and let’s move the conversation forward on how and why to test this intuition!

The event will feature keynote as well as lightning talks and trainee posters from each of these respective areas of research; multiple, in-depth panel and plenary discussions; some multi-sensory and potentially perception-bending workshops; and 2.5 hours of brainstorming and collective writing for any participants interested in writing a collective piece about the potential for developing the field of perception transformation during pregnancy and its implications for nutrition/ food sciences and health.

To guarantee yourself a spot, please register now and pay the nominal fee of 125 DKK for faculty or professionals, 100 DKK for postdocs and PhD students, 75 DKK for bachelor or master’s students (which will help to cover the costs of food, drink and administrative assistance). We look forward to seeing you!


PROGRAM

DAY 1 - WEDNESDAY 29 MAY

09.00 - 09.15

Welcome with coffee, buns and fruit

09:15 - 09:30 Opening remarks by organizers

09.30 - 10.00

Embodiment workshop 1
Lead by Beatriz Gonzalez Rodriguez

10.00 - 11.00

Keynote: 'Interoception and brain-body interactions: theory, neurobiology and methods'
by Franscesca Fardo (Aarhus University)

11.00 - 11.10

Mini break

11.10 - 12.00

Lightening talks on Perception and Cognition, followed by panel discussion

12:00-12:15

Introduction to video installation on ‘Embodiment and Motherhood’

by Julienne Doko

12.15 - 13.15

Lunch and small group visits to video installation ‘Worth Of My Body (W.O.M.B.)’

by Julienne Doko

13.15 - 14.00

Sensory walk: Experiencing and perceive our worlds through our ears, nose, skin, taste buds and inner monitoring? by William Hightower (Founder of Theatre Think Tank)

14.00 - 14.15

Coffee

14.15 - 15.15

Keynote: ‘Next steps for advancing health promotion and health equity: The case of families with gestational diabetes' by Helle Terkildsen Maindal (Aarhus University)

15.15 - 15.50

Lightening talks on peri-natal and post-partum periods, followed by panel discussion

15.50 - 16.10

Open discussion

16.10 - 16.45

Video installation and networking over soft drinks

18.30 - 22.00

Dinner at Madklubben 

DAY 2 - THURSDAY 30 MAY

09.40 - 09.55

Coffee and arrival

09.55 - 10.00

Welcome by Agnete Larsen

10.00 - 11.00

Keynote: ‘Building Blocks for Breastfeeding Success: The Importance of Antenatal Support and Self-Efficacy' by Sharleen O’Reilly (University College Dublin)

11.00 - 11.25

Storytelling workshop: Stories of the Forgotten Placenta

by Sara Domingo Brauman (UAC Art Platform)

11.25 - 11.30

Mini break

11.30 - 12.30

Lightening talks on nutrition and food science, followed by panel discussion

12.30 - 13.15

Lunch

13.15 - 14.15

Keynote: ‘Applications of lipid bioinformatics as a useful tool to understand how maternal breast milk lipidome influences atopic disease and developmental outcome in early life’ by Raymond Thomas (University of Western Ontario) via Zoom

14.15 - 14.30

Open discussion and conclusion of academic/scientific program

14.30 - 15.15

Embodiment workshop 2: Research dissemination and knowledge translation using multi-sensory means
Lead by Alan O’Leary (Aarhus University)

15.15 - 16.30

Group writing session
30 minutes brainstorming questions, aims, priorities for a collective writing initiative in small groups, followed by 30 minutes sharing in plenary

16.30 - 16.45

Last chance to visit video installation and posters

18.00 - 

Self-paid, self-organized dinner


REGISTRATION

The event is open to all interested. Registration closes on 24 May 2024.

Please sign up via the button above or here


SUPPORT

The conference is funded by:

Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Aarhus University