PhD Courses in Denmark

Welcome to How to research ‘delicate matters’ (the existential, ethical, aesthetical, and phenomenological dimensions) in Healthcare, Education, and Welfare

Description:

This course is of specific interest to Ph.D. students with a background in human and social science and with interests in qualitative studies (phenomenological, hermeneutic and ‘wonder/art-based (action) research) be it from within environmental or health humanities, psychology, nursing, anthropology, medicine, theology, sociology, communication theory, or philosophy. In our examples and cases, we take our departure from different contexts, mainly in the section of healthcare, but the insights and approaches to the ‘delicate matters’ can also be relevant and transferable to other fields in education and welfare.

Some of the matters most central to living a meaningful life and sharing the world with others are often saliently felt in lived experience but notoriously difficult to get a handle on methodologically and theoretically. Take, for instance, elusive but highly saturated delicate matters such as love, friendship, loss, grief, creativity, deep wonder, anxiety, experiences of art, and experiences of freedom.

Acknowledging that such delicate matters are also central for well-being, care, and development in healthcare, education, and welfare practices and institutions, this course raises the question of how to conduct research on such matters and their elusive existential, ethical, aesthetic, and phenomenological dimensions. In contemporary human science, various disciplines use methodologies, epistemologies, and ontologies to research the existential, ethical, aesthetical, and phenomenological dimensions in Healthcare, Education, and Welfare.

 In this PhD course, we combine research approaches from psychology, care ethics, Health and environmental Humanities, care aesthetics, spiritual-existential care, and philosophy (phenomenology, existence philosophy, and hermeneutics) to study their differences and points of intersection.

The German poet, philosopher, and scientist, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, once described matters of deep and great value for human beings as ineffable and not to be grasped by natural science and systematic epistemological analysis. Goethe called the scientific approach, which he developed to explore those ineffable and delicate experiences, “delicate empiricism” (Robbins, 2015). Later, existential phenomenology and philosophical hermeneutics developed modern humanistic ‘qualitative’ research approaches to become sensitive to these delicate matters in human lifeworlds as well as in humans’ interdependence with nature and ‘the-more-than-human,’ as eco-phenomenologists, environmental ethicists, and eco-philosophers today point out. The capacity of a human scientific researcher to maintain an open mind and cultivate a profound, personal sense of wonder is an essential virtue in the field. This course will address, describe, and provide training in this type of 'metacognitive' reflectivity and sensitivity. Such skills are crucial for fostering innovative thinking and maintaining intellectual curiosity throughout one's scientific career

Day 1 focuses on the relationship between psychological (Dr. Mai-Britt Guldin) and spiritual-existential research approaches (Prof. Carlo Leget).

Day 2 focuses on philosophical approaches based on critical phenomenology (Associate Prof. Rasmus Dyring) and wonder-based phenomenology (Prof. Finn Thorbjørn Hansen).

On Day 3 starts with ‘phenomenology in action’ through experiencing a ‘Wonder Lab’, and in the afternoon we all explore and discuss the different research approaches and their methodologies and learn how to work with them academically when approaching ‘delicate matters’.

Day 4 (one week later, Online): Focus on the Ph.D. students’ projects with supervision. In groups, Ph.D. students will reflect upon self-chosen methodological or theoretical questions that have been awoken during the course and in relation to their own research project. 

Each lecturer on the course will take his/her departure from a specific healthcare, educational or welfare situation and context and ‘delicate matter’ and show how he/she works in this situation, context and with this delicate matter as a researcher with an eye for also the use of aesthetical (or everyday creativity) experiences or/and philosophical (dialogical) experiences.

Some of research questions that the lectures will dwell upon are:

1)       How do we in Existential Healthcare Communication work in theory and practice with a new notion of ‘Existential Health’ (or Existential Sustainability), which on the one hand is closely connected to what Hartmut Rosa coins as ‘Existential Resonance’(Rosa, 2019), and Svenaeus (2000) and Todres & Galvin (2010), and Hansen & Jørgensen (2020) through Heidegger (Heidegger, 1995) describe as a kind of “ontological homecoming”, and on the other hand with the experience of feeling connected to nature seen from an eco-phenomenological perspective (Sallis, 2016; Abram, 2017; Nelson, 2021;Verducci & Kule, 2022)?

2)       Why is it that especially ‘art experiences’ (song, music, art works, dance, poetry) and ‘philosophical experiences’ (such as philosophizing and wondrous conversations and dialogical communities of wonder) and sometimes also more spiritual rituals and practices seem to create a special kind of soul-nurturing and spirit-strengthening ‘non-time’ and ‘non-space’ when indwelling into existential questions and experiences of people in care, their relatives or of caretakers? How are we to understand the enigmatic relation between Health Humanities and Environmental Humanities, or between human health and planetary health (Wahl, 2006; 2016)? 

3)       How do we do research on the existential, spiritual, and eco-phenomenological dimensions in healthcare communication? How can you through theoretical studies pave the way for new orientations in understanding existential care ethics and healthcare communication in a non-anthropocentric perspective that rests on ontology and phenomenology that puts the aesthetical and philosophical experiences in the center? And how do you do qualitative and empirical research on these subjects through practice phenomenology (Van Manen, 2014, 2023), action research (Dinkens & Hansen, 2016; Hansen, 2022) or art-based research (Visse, Hansen & Leget, 2019, 2020)?

Teaching methods:

The course will be organized through lectures, dialogues, and interactivity through workshops.

The organizer of this course is Professor Finn Thorbjørn Hansen.

Morning and afternoon lectures in Day 1, 2 & 3 will be thematically organized to address the questions listed above. The lectures will be followed by questions and discussions in groups and class.

On Day 4 (one week later Online), the participants will be divided into groups of 5-6 participants. It is expected that every group member has read all abstracts and key questions in their group before the course, and have their 5-pages essay ready.

Programme outline:

Day 1. Introduction and Focus 1: Existential and Spiritual dimensions in Health Care

10.00-10.30 Introduction to the course – Finn Thorbjørn Hansen 

10.40-12.30 Researching Existential healthcare communication: perspectives and methodologies from psychology and spiritual care - Mai-Britt Guldin & Carlo Leget

12.30-13.15 Lunch

13:15-14:45 An integrative approach to loss and grief: the development of an interdisciplinary model – Mai-Britt Guldin & Carlo Leget

14:45-15:00 Coffee break

15:00-16:00: Working with the Integrative Process Model of loss and grief in existential healthcare communication - Mai-Britt Guldin & Carlo Leget

16:00-16:15 Coffee break

16:15-17:00: Panel discussion and dialogue on “Integrative Process Model of loss and grief” — MaiBritt-Guldin, Carlo Leget, Rasmus Dyring & Finn Thorbjørn Hansen

Day 2. Focus 2: Eco-phenomenological and world-oriented healthcare. Education, and welfare

9:30 – 10:30: Basic dimensions in Existential, Critical and Eco-phenomenology – Finn and Rasmus

10:45-12:15: Researching how to get from Person-centered Care to Word-open Care and Back in philosophical and phenomenological perspectives (Case 1): Everyday Creativity in Dementia Care --- Rasmus.

12:15-13:00. Lunch

13:00-14:30: Researching how to get from Person-centered Care to Word-open Care and Back in philosophical and phenomenological perspectives (Case 2): how art and philosophical experiences may nurture Eco-Existential and Wonder-based relations between people and relations to the world based on two experiences from  Aalborg University Hospital and School of Design in Kolding. --- Finn

14:30-14:45: Coffee break

14:45: A Case about Everyday Creativity and Micro Existential Dramas in One Situation in Dementia Unit --- Rasmus.

16:15:-17:00: Panel discussion and dialogue on how artistic, creative, and philosophical practices can enhance and nurture eco-existential health and spiritual recovery --- Rasmus, Finn, Carlo, and Mai-Britt.
 

Day 3. Focus 3: Meta-cognitive mindset and ways of doing research on ‘delicate matters’

9.30-12.30: Exercise in Wonder Lab and reflections – Finn & Carlo

12.30-13.15: Lunch

13:15-14:15: Doing research from a philosophical (critical relational-ontological) perspective - Rasmus

14:15-14:30: Coffee break

14:30-15:30: Doing research from a phenomenological action research perspective - Finn

15:30-16:15: Dialogue with Rasmus and Finn

16:15-17:00: PhD-students work in groups developing research/wonder questions

Day 4. (online): Integrating knowledge into the PhD-projects

9:30 – 12:00. Students work in groups on PhD-students projects with supervision (part 1)

12:00-12:45: Lunch:

12:45-15:00: Students work in groups on PhD-students projects with supervision (part 2)

15:00-16:00: Summing up and dialogue around the PhD-students’ research/wonder questions --- Carlo & Finn

Description of paper requirements, if applicable:

Before the course:

We will ask each participant to write and send a short description (1 page) of their research project and describe in what way they find existential, aesthetical, ethical or phenomenological dimensions in their research project and what their main question and wonderment currently is.

After the course:

We will ask each participant to make a 5-pages reflection based on the mandatory literature on how they now think about how to do research on the existential and equal ‘delicate matters’ in research materials. These pages should be ready at the Fourth Day (Online, one week later)

Key literature:

Please see the file "Key literature" further down.

Organizer:
Finn Thorbjørn Hansen

Lecturers:

Professor Finn Thorbjørn Hansen, Co-Head of TEN, Aalborg University
Professor Carlo Leget, Chair of Care Ethics, University of Humanities, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Associate Professor Rasmus Dyring, Department of Philosophy, Aarhus University
Senior Researcher Mai-Britt Guldin, Research Unit for GP and Department of Public Health, Aarhus Universit

ECTS:
3

Time:
22,23,24 October 2025, Online: 31 October 2025

Place:
TBA

Zip code:
9000

City:
Aalborg

Number of seats:
20

Deadline:
1 October 2025

Important information concerning PhD courses: 

There is a no-show fee of DKK 3,000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before the start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start of the course.

We cannot ensure any seats before the deadline for enrolment, all participants will be informed after the deadline, approximately 3 weeks before the start of the course.For inquiries regarding registration, cancellation or waiting list, please contact the PhD administration at phdcourses@adm.aau.dk  When contacting us please state the course title and course period. Thank you.