Pain Imagined, Embodied, Told: A Polyphonic Encounter Between Art, Science and Care
Fringe event organised by IAS Alumni Fellow Jana Declercq and Journalist-in-Residence Sanne Bloemink, as part of the IAS Festival
- Date
- 19 May 2026
- Time
- 14:00 -17:00
- Location
- University Library
- Room
- Surgical Theatre
On 19 May, journalist Sanne Bloemink and linguistics researcher Jana Declercq are organising a gathering on art and language in the treatment and discussion of chronic pain, both within healthcare and beyond. In the surgical theatre of the University of Amsterdam, Sanne and Jana will enter into a multimodal dialogue with various artists (a visual artist, a dancer and a writer) as well as clinicians, to explore what other languages we have or can create, and what role different art forms might play in this process. They will situate this exchange within recent academic research on art-based interventions in healthcare. The event will end with space for conversation with the audience, in order to develop widely supported new insights and initiatives for making chronic pain easier to discuss in healthcare and beyond.
This event will take place in Dutch.
Speakers
Sanne Bloemink
Sanne Bloemink is a writer and journalist for De Groene Amsterdammer. In 2024 and 2025, she was Journalist-in-Residence at the IAS. Her most recent book is Pijn - een expeditie naar onbestemd gebied (Pluim).
Jana Declercq
Jana Declercq is an Associate Professor at the University of Antwerp (BE). Since 2019, she has been researching communication and language surrounding chronic pain in healthcare, and recently developed conversation cards with images relating to pain experience for use in clinical communication with patients living with chronic pain.
Registration
Registration for this session will be available from February 1, 2026. Note that this session will take place in Dutch.
From 18 to 21 May 2026, the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Advanced Study celebrates its 10th anniversary with the IAS Festival: a week-long programme dedicated to reflection, exchange and forward-looking dialogue. The festival marks a decade of boundary-crossing interdisciplinary research while exploring the complex questions that will shape the years to come.
The programme includes the launch of a special anniversary publication "The Edge of Knowing", alongside a series of Future Challenges sessions that bring together leading thinkers from science, society, policy and the arts. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with urgent themes, transcending disciplinary boundaries and exploring new perspectives in lectures, discussions and interactive sessions.