Affective Atmospheres

Registration is required for both days.

Paula Reavey

Paula Reavey is Deputy Director of the Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory at the University of Stirling and Professor of Psychology at London South Bank University. Her research reimagines how we understand mental health and memory, drawing on process theory and phenomenology to explore lived experience in context. Paula’s work focuses on the material and relational dimensions of memory—how environments, objects, and social dynamics shape the way we remember and experience distress. Originally from the Western Isles of Scotland and raised in Southeast England, Paula has dedicated her career to advancing psychological theory and practice that reflects the complexity of real lives. She is co-author of the award-winning Psychology, Mental Health & Distress (British Psychological Society Book Prize) and Vital Memory & Affect: Living with a Difficult Past. In addition, she has edited seven academic volumes and ten commercial books in the Design with People in Mind series, bridging psychology and design to create spaces that support wellbeing. A Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Paula advises NHS England and the World Health Organization on mental health policy and service design. Her work invites us to rethink memory—not as something stored in the mind alone, but as deeply embedded in the places, objects, and relationships that make up our lives. Through this lens, she challenges conventional approaches and opens new possibilities for understanding distress, resilience, and recovery.

Giovanna Colombetti

Giovanna Colombetti is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology (SPSPA) at the University of Exeter, where she also co-ordinates the interdisciplinary research cluster “Beyond Culture and Cognition” within EGENIS (The Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences). She is currently also Adjunct Professor in Philosophy at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Southern Denmark, and co-Editor-in-Chief of Emotion Review (the journal of the International Society for Research on Emotion). She is one of the lucky people to be associated with Stirling’s Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory. She has a background in philosophy and cognitive science. She has worked primarily in the field of embodied and situated cognition, and emotion (or rather “affectivity” broadly construed). In her 2014 book, The Feeling Body: Affective Science Meets the Enactive Mind (MIT Press), she offered a reconceptualization of various affective phenomena from a dynamical and embodied “enactivist” perspective. Since then, she has worked on the notion of “environmentally situated affectivity”, and is currently finalizing a book on the notion of “materially scaffolded affectivity”. In both her teaching and research, she draws liberally from phenomenology, analytic philosophy, theoretical and experimental work in psychology and neuroscience, and performance and material-culture studies.

Lucy Osler

Lucy Osler is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Exeter. She specialises in phenomenological and 4E approaches to technology, human-AI relations, affectivity, and psychopathology. Lucy’s research has primarily been concerned with what might be best described as the Philosophy of Digital Society. Using insights from philosophy of mind, philosophy of emotions, feminist philosophy, and philosophy of psychiatry, she is interested in better understanding how our increasingly digitally saturated lives are shaped and influenced by new technologies. Her work spans topics from feeling togetherness online, the social and emotional implications of interacting with chatbots, digital spaces as affective scaffolding, the influence of algorithmic profiling on our self-narratives, and Pro-Anorexic communities.

Joel Krueger

Joel Krueger is Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Exeter. He works on issues in phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science. This includes topics related to embodied cognition, emotions, social cognition, psychopathology, loneliness, and human-AI interactions. He also has interests in Asian and comparative philosophy, philosophy of music, and pragmatism. He is an Associate Editor of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences and of Passion: Journal of the European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotion.

Keith Allen

Keith Allen is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of York. One main focus of his research is the philosophy of colour. In his book A Naïve Realist Theory of Colour (Oxford University Press, 2016), he defends a naïve realist (or “primitivist”) theory of colour, positing that colours are mind-independent properties of objects distinct from those described by science. His work on colour is part of a broader interest in the philosophy of perception. Additionally, he explores related questions in the history of philosophy, such as theories of ideas in the early modern period and the work of the phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty.

Safet HadžiMuhamedović

Safet HadžiMuhamedović is a Research Fellow at the Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory (CSPM), University of Stirling. He is an anthropologist of politics and religion, exploring memory, place and belonging in contexts shaped by nationalist violence, forced displacement and environmental change. Before Stirling, Safet taught a wide array of anthropological subjects at the universities of Cambridge, London (SOAS and Goldsmiths), Bristol and Frankfurt. His first book, Waiting for Elijah: Time and Encounter in a Bosnian Landscape (Berghahn, 2018/21), draws on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Bosnian Dinaric highlands, exploring interfaith relations, sacred geography and the temporality of home among post-war returnees. His forthcoming book, Underworlding, tracks cross-species memory tactics in the watery subterranean Dinaric karst, focusing on a sacred sinking river and the genocidal erasure of syncretic cosmo-ecologies.

Ruth Olden

Ruth Olden is a Research Fellow at the Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory (CSPM) at the University of Stirling. She is a cultural geographer with a background and training in landscape architecture. Her research advances geographical and interdisciplinary perspectives on memory, health, and place, with the aim of informing innovation in placemaking practice. She investigates the contested futures of ruins, cultural relics, and heritage landscapes, focusing most recently on post-industrial Glasgow and Central Scotland — a region that serves as both a crucible and a catalyst for research into memory and place, marked as it is by uncertain and historically layered landscapes. A central concern in her work is the role of personal and collective memory in shaping articulations of place — past, present, and possible future. Through this lens, she examines how landscapes marked by abandonment, renewal, or cultural significance become sites where memory is negotiated, preserved, or transformed. Her research situates these processes within broader questions about wellbeing, community identity, and the evolving purposes of place in contemporary society.

Fiona Zisch

Fiona Zisch is Associate Professor in Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, where she is Programme Director for the MArch Design for Performance and Interaction (sabbatical 2025–26). Fiona has 25 years of experience in architecture, with over a decade at the intersection of architecture and the brain sciences. Her research explores cognitive ecologies with a specific interest in embodied cognition and movement in (architectural) space, as well as equity, diversity, and inclusion in the built environment. Fiona co-leads the research facility BodyLab at UCL Here East. She is UCL Co-Director of the Centre for NeuroArchitecture and NeuroDesign (UCL/RISE), academic Co-Lead for the Creative Experience Lab London (UCL/Loughborough), and UK Chair of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture. Fiona has held academic positions both nationally and internationally, has practised as an architect and architectural writer in the UK and in Austria, and has a publication record in both architecture and neuroscience. For over a decade she has curated and designed international exhibitions at design, arts, science, and technology festivals, for example at Ars Electronica Festival, and has overseen the design of public art and architecture installations, for example as part of the European Capital of Culture. She frequently acts as an expert advisor for the creative and cultural industries. Fiona holds a Dipl. Ing. (BSc and MArch) in Architecture from the University of Innsbruck, as well as a PhD in Architecture and Neuroscience from University College London.

Jinjoon Lee

Jinjoon Lee FRSA is a Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and serves as the founding Director of the Art & Technology Center (KATEC). He is a leading scholar and media artist exploring the convergence of AI, philosophy, and multisensory environments. As a “data gardenist”, he explores liminoid experiences—multisensory in-between spaces where perception intersects with data-driven systems—using elements such as light, sound, scent, and data. After graduating from Seoul National University, Lee earned a Master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in London and a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Fine Art from the University of Oxford. In recognition of his contributions to art and society, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). Lee also holds positions as Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, Visiting Scholar at St John’s College, University of Oxford, Visiting Senior Researcher at Tokyo University of the Arts, and Affiliate Professor at New York University (NYU). A Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021 artist, Lee has exhibited internationally in venues such as MMCA Korea, ZKM Germany, the Korean Cultural Centre London, and BB&M Gallery in Seoul. Recently, he received wide attention for Cine- Forest: Awakening Bloom, a large-scale media performance that transformed the forest of Bundang Central Park into a living open-air theatre where nature, technology, and humanity converge. Drawing on East Asian philosophical traditions and the literati artist-scholar lineage, Lee continues to play a leading role in global discourse on media art, artificial intelligence, and creativity.

Pablo Fernandez Velasco

Pablo Fernandez Velasco is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory at the University of Stirling, and an affiliated member of the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience at University College London. His work sits at the intersection of philosophy of mind and cognitive science, driven by a commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration. He sees philosophy both as a means of developing solid theoretical foundations for cross-disciplinary research and as a bridge connecting scientific advances to pressing social issues. His research focuses on spatial cognition, environmental experience, and the affective processes that shape how people evaluate and regulate their thinking. He investigates these themes in partnership with researchers in neuroscience, computer science, psychology, geography, anthropology and architecture, employing methods ranging from phenomenology and cognitive ethnography to brain imaging, gamified experiments, surveys and thematic analysis. His British Academy project examines ecological grief — the sense of loss arising from experiences of environmental destruction — aiming to develop an integrative theoretical framework that can support future interdisciplinary research on the psychological impact of ecological change. Dr Fernandez Velasco completed his PhD at the Institut Jean Nicod of the École Normale Supérieure in 2021, and his work has appeared in leading journals and been featured in media outlets including the BBC, The Guardian, El País, Le Monde, the Irish Times, New Scientist, and The New York Times. He is also the recipient of essay prizes from the Centre for Philosophical Psychology (2021) and the International Society for Social Ontology (2022).

Morwenna Kearsley

Morwenna Kearsley is a Glasgow-based artist working predominantly with photography, text and moving image. Primarily using analogue materials, her work positions the interior of the camera and the darkroom as interconnected, revelatory spaces where darkness and the occasional presence of light is the fundamental, transformational force. Engaged in conversations that question and analyse the photograph’s role as a document, a vehicle for artistic expression and as a tool of cross-community collaboration, Kearsley asks: how can we use photography to advocate, to inform and to complicate the ways in which we see and are seen? At CSPM she is researching the role of darkness in the construction of memories and photographs. She is interested in the human experience of darkness, both as a physical “space” and as a generative site of symbolic interpretation, recollection and oral history. Recent exhibitions include APPARATUS, StrangeField (2024), Perilous, Glasgow Project Rooms (2022), Faux Posters, Ester Krumbachová Retrospective, Czech Republic (2021), Ambit: Photographies from Scotland, Stills, Edinburgh (2019). She was selected for Plat(t)form, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2025) and has undertaken many residencies, including at Cove Park (Scotland), Perth Museum (Scotland) and Fondazione Fotografia, Modena (Italy).

Mitch Miller

Mitch Miller is an artist and illustrator who lives and works in Glasgow. His “Dialectograms” are complex drawings of places created through close collaboration with groups and communities. His work has been acquired and exhibited by the Victoria and Albert Museum, Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, Glasgow Museums and the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisation in Marseilles. He teaches part time at the Glasgow School of Art.

Edward Hollis

Edward Hollis studied Architecture at Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities and practised in Edinburgh and Sri Lanka, focusing on the re-use of historic and existing buildings. In 1999, he began lecturing in Interior Architecture at Napier University, Edinburgh. In 2004, he moved to Edinburgh College of Art, where he is currently Professor of Interior Design. Working with follies and ruins in Sri Lanka, with modern interventions to historic buildings in Scotland, and in the slippery discipline of Interiors, has focused Hollis’s research on building stories and narrative structures connecting time, folk tale, and the built environment. His first book, The Secret Lives of Buildings, a collection of folk tales about famous buildings, was published in 2009; his second, The Memory Palace, a book of vignettes of lost interiors, was published in 2013. His third, How to Make a Home, was published for the School of Life in 2016. His fourth, A Drama in Time, is a guide to Riddles Court, one of the oldest houses in Edinburgh. He also engages with heritage activism. Between 2012 and 2018 Ed was involved with experimental plans to re-occupy the ruins of St Peter’s Seminary at Cardross in Argyll. He is a member of the educational advisory board of the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust. Since 2018 he has been working with activists in Asansol, a coal-mining town in West Bengal, to find innovative ways to celebrate their industrial heritage. Since 2021 he has worked with partners in Paris, Madrid, and Granton investigating heritage “on the edge”.

Haroon Lone

Haroon Lone is a doctoral researcher at the Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory. He has worked at the intersections of political theory, historical memory and the cultural geography of power. His academic path began with a Master’s in Political Science, followed by an MPhil in which he examined how the supple spiritual heritage of Sufism was appropriated by post-Soviet regimes in their efforts to craft adaptable national identities. His work revealed the mechanisms through which states instrumentalise culture to stabilise authority, and it continues to inform his intellectual concerns. His broader interests lie in questions of justice, the vocabularies and practices of human rights and the fragile architectures through which communities preserve collective memory under strain. His current doctoral research extends these preoccupations into a more intimate terrain. It explores the phenomenology of a contested landscape, tracing how people navigate the violent drift of memory across generations and composing a spatial understanding of their world under prolonged political erasure. His project is a kind of cartography of the unseen, an attempt to chart the ways in which a sense of place and a sense of past are disrupted, reassembled and patiently held together. In the spirit of a contrapuntal reading, he seeks to illuminate the distance between official narratives and lived experience, between the cartographer’s confident line and the inhabitant’s uncertain cognitive map.

Tania Manuel Casimiro

Tania Manuel Casimiro is a Research Fellow at the Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory (CSPM) at the University of Stirling. She is a historical archaeologist specialising in material culture, urban marginality, and the intersections of place and memory. Her research spans community archaeology, waste and urban ecologies, the archaeology of abandonment, cemeteries, and non-human interactions in both urban and non-urban environments. She has led and participated in excavations and interdisciplinary projects across multiple regions of the world, examining how memory is constructed through objects, spaces, and social practices. At the Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory, she investigates liminal spaces and contested memories, bringing a material-focused perspective to the study of urban belonging, resilience, waste management, and processes of social transformation.

This conference is being funded by The Royal Institute of Philosophy as part of their Philosophy Conference Funding Programme