Public Dialogues

The Nieuwe Utrechtse School organizes public dialogues at the intersection of major societal challenges, the sciences and humanities, and the arts. The following public dialogues have been organized in the past:

Burners: Stories of Struggle, Dreams, and Care

On paper, you don't exist, but you still need medical care. What do you do then? Many North African migrants burn their identity documents during their journey to prevent being identified as undocumented in Europe. This gives rise to complex healthcare challenges. Continue Reading

Blue Zones

There is growing attention for so-called "Blue Zones": seven areas around the world where people live remarkably long lives with a high quality of life. What causes this? What enables these people to live both long and happily? As part of the UU Sharing Days, Van Hier Naar [...] organized a public dialogue on Blue Zones. Continue Reading

HELP! You can learn from failure

When does something count as a failure? What do you do when an intervention does not deliver the expected results? What is the value of failures, and what opportunities arise from revising strategies and approaches in academia? Continue Reading

The Health Cause #3: Unheard Voices

Being homeless often means having no safe home, no place to seek shelter and rest, no access to healthy food, and no access to healthcare. This has a significant impact on people's lives: homeless individuals live, on average, 14-16 years shorter than those with a home. Continue Reading

Exposome: Work-Related Diseases

Every day, 10 people in the Netherlands die as a result of their work, amounting to 4,000 deaths annually. In what ways can people in the Netherlands become ill due to their work? Which professional groups are most affected? And, most importantly, how can this burden of illness be prevented in the future? Continue Reading

Medical Science and The Great Adventure

How do you manage ambition and competition in your scientific career? How do you balance professional ambition with personal circumstances, and what moments are crucial in this process? Can we develop tools to address these challenges? Continue Reading

On the Way to the Health Cause 2

Can legal action compel the government to adopt different health policies, as seen in climate cases? And what is the balance between economic interests and public health? Experts are exploring what a fair health policy looks like and how far the 'right to health' extends. Continue Reading

Exposome: the air-polluted society

Each year, 12,000 people in the Netherlands die as a result of air pollution. How can we accelerate the transition to clean air? And what role do (future) doctors, policymakers, and other stakeholders play in this process? Continue Reading

Exposome: the obesogenic society

The number of people with overweight in the Netherlands has been increasing for decades, including among children. The Municipality of Utrecht aims for at least 91% of youth to have a healthy weight by 2040, compared to 86% in 2019. But how did it come to this? Continue Reading

Every wise owl was once a fledgling

How do we address burnout? How can we create space to be authentic, so that burnout is no longer seen as a form of failure but as a symptom of a deeper issue? And what, then, is that deeper issue? Continue Reading

The Health Cause

If you are highly educated, you have a life expectancy that is four to six years longer and live up to 15 years longer in good health. Are these differences coincidental, or the result of failing government policies? What other possibilities exist? Continue Reading

A healthy Utrecht for all: how where you're born determines your chances at a healthy life

Our place of birth profoundly affects our opportunities for a healthy life. What role does the environment play in shaping health outcomes, and are these differences unjust? How do crucial factors, such as the first 1,000 days of life and ethnicity, influence health disparities? Continue Reading

The Commercial Determinants of Health: the elephant in the room

Do pharmaceutical companies influence our health policies? Renowned experts engaged in dialogue about the hidden forces behind the marketing of unhealthy products and the complex connections with social, political, and economic factors. Continue Reading

Election Debate "Caring for a Healthy Society"

During the 2023 Dutch parliamentary elections, there was truly something to choose from: new parties, new faces, and new plans. And this is necessary: the combination of an aging population, chronic illnesses, and expensive treatments places significant pressure on the financial and personnel sustainability of healthcare. Continue Reading

Against the current: Embracing discomfort in psychiatric research

Modern psychiatry relies heavily on the DSM. Moving beyond the DSM criteria, therefore, brings uncertainty and discomfort. What is the importance of recognizing and valuing uncertainty and discomfort in psychiatry? And how can we embrace that uncertainty and discomfort? Continue Reading

Failure, ingenuity, and change: Stories of setbacks in medical research

We all encounter failure in our work. How do we deal with such setbacks? How can we use our resourcefulness to turn failure into success? Continue Reading

A good death instead of medical survival?

Everyone wants a good, long, and meaningful life. But what do we do when the end of that life seems to be approaching? Do we choose to continue living as long as possible with medical support, despite all potential discomforts? Continue Reading

The moral question surrounding pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and patients

While healthcare costs continue to rise sharply, more and more expensive treatments are entering the market. The pharmaceutical industry drives innovation but is also one of the most lucrative and profitable sectors in the world. Continue Reading

Room for Risk: When is something a mistake?

Making mistakes has a negative connotation. We often try to avoid them and are reluctant to talk about them when they happen. Yet, mistakes are an inevitable part of our lives. Continue Reading

Can you still make healthy choices?

People are free to make their own choices about their health. What you eat, what you drink, how much you exercise: you decide how you live. Or do you? Continue Reading

Government or free market: who is stenting the healthcare infarction?

How can we keep healthcare accessible, inclusive, and affordable? And who should take responsibility for this? Is market competition the solution, or should the government (re)take control? Has the public interest become subordinate to that of the free market? Continue Reading

Equal opportunities for health? 

Why do social position, education level, and income largely determine your health? How is it possible that there is a difference of as much as fifteen years in perceived good health between the neighborhoods of Overvecht and Tuindorp, separated by just a railway line? Continue reading 

Tell Yourself

How do events during your early development influence the further development of your personal identity and your role in society? And what is the importance of development and ownership for positive health? Continue Reading

Trial & Error in Science

How do researchers in Utrecht get to work in the lab in innovative ways? And how do they translate their fundamental research to the public? Continue Reading

It's Getting Hot

What is the relationship between climate change and our health? And what can the health domain do to combat climate change? Continue Reading

Living with Uncertainty

How do we live with uncertainty? Can modern humans still do that? Continue Reading

Future of the Healthy City 

What does the healthy city of the future look like? A future-proof health domain requires collaboration. Continue Reading 

Imagining the future of healthcare

Many dream - and worry - about the future of healthcare. What does it look like in 2050? How can we make this system 'fit for the future'? What leadership skills are necessary for such a transition, and who is responsible? Continue Reading

Between fake news and (bio)medical fact

A lot of (dis)information on disease and health can be found on the internet. Patients and healthcare professionals need to find and trust each other in this world of fake news. What is correct? Who decides? Continue Reading

Who controls your mind?

The relation between doctor and patient seems to change. Patients become more verbal whilst doctors are less authoritative than in the past. Who has a right to speak about physical and psychological health? Continue Reading

An app as your doctor?

Throughout the world of healthcare, various new digital aids are mushrooming. Online, both doctors and patients can find astonishing amounts of information on disease and treatments. Is your doctor being replaced by an app on your phone? Continue Reading

Theatre, Intersubjectivity and Medical/Psycho-trauma

The theatre allows us to visualise and live through physical and mental suffering, which in itself can have a healing effect. Vice versa, the hospital floor effectively forms a stage for a strictly scripted performance. What can we learn from this relationship? Continue Reading

The art of healing, the visual arts and the clinical perspective

Artists, art historians, and doctors are creative observers: they have to be able to read images and facial experssions in a split second, discern subtle signals and discover hidden patterns. Continue Reading

Meaning of Illness in and through Music

Music can have a healing influence. Vibrations and pacing allow spastic and ossified muscles to relax. Listing to a composition can alter your emotional state. What can we learn from the meaning of music in a (healthy) life? Continue Reading

Dance, Corporeity and Psychosomatics

The body feels, breathes, moves, works... and dances. The way how humans experience the world and give meaning to these experiences is bound to our physical senses. What happens if you lose those abilities? Continue Reading

Literature, Narrativity and Psychiatry

Human beings tell stories. We continuously narrate our lives, our origins, our feelings, our goals. But what if the story is interrupted? How does illness affect that story? Continue Reading