Principal speaker
Heidi Hjelmeland
Professor Diego De Leo, Director, Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention extends a warm invitation to attend the second presentation of the 2013 Life Promotion Clinic Seminar series at Griffith University. Heidi Hjelmeland, Professor of Health Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, will present on the topic "The importance of culture in "biological times".
Currently, we see an increased “biologification” of the suicidological field. This is apparent in a number of ways. First, a biological turn of the suicidological “language” seems to be developing. For instance, common risk factors are increasingly referred to as “endophenotypes” (i.e. genetically induced biological markers) whether they are biological or not. Also, suicidal behaviour is itself frequently referred to as a “phenotype”, and, the concept “suicidal brain” rather than “the suicidal mind” or “the suicidal person” often is used. Other examples of a current “biologification” of the field is an increased interest and enthusiasm with regard to the importance and potential of (neuro)biological research on suicide, for instance, genetic research and brain-imaging research, among other things. In this presentation, I will discuss some potential consequences of such a biological turn of events as well as argue for the importance of including a cultural perspective in all suicide research and prevention, even/particularly in “biological times”. A number of examples will be presented.
Heidi Hjelmeland is Professor of Health Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim as well as Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, Norway. She has done suicide research since 1992 and has published on various aspects of suicidal behavior, such as, epidemiology, attitudes, intentionality, meaning, communication, gender and culture as well as on theoretical and methodological issues. Her most recent research is conducted in Uganda and Ghana, where she has also supervised a number of PhD students. She is Co-Editor of the journal Suicidology Online as well as member of the Editorial Board of the journals Crisis and Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.
Cost: Gold Coin donation
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