Research in the Library: Existential Health

VID Oslo, The Library, Diakonveien 18, 1st floor and digitally
February 24th 2026, 14:00 – 15:30

The event will be streamed

Existential health has become an increasingly influential concept in discussions on health in recent years. Existential health concerns how we find and make meaning in life in general as well as in demanding life situations. It concerns how we relate to life’s uncertainty and finitude and how we relate to ourselves, others and our surroundings.

Several scholars at VID have a growing interest in existential health and it is a pleasure to invite Professor Ola Sigurdson to give a lecture on existential health as part of the SDP seminar series. Sigurdson was one of the first academics who discussed the concept of existential health in a seminal article from 2016 titled “Existential Health: Philosophical and historical perspectives”.

Ola Sigurdson is professor of systematic theology at the University of Oslo and the author of more than thirty books in English and Swedish. Among other things, he has taken an interest in questions regarding health and healthcare. Between 2011 and 2017, he was director for the multidisciplinary Centre for Culture and Health at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. This strategic centre comprised both Arts & Health, as well as Medical Humanities. In his work on existential health, he has highlighted the importance of a conceptual and historical analysis of these terms: for the sake of applicability, we need to be precise about what we speak of when we speak of existential health.

The lecture will be introduced by professor Anne Austad, VID.
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session.

What is Research in the Library?

Research in the Library is a new event series at VID Oslo, developed in collaboration between the library and the campus council. Current research from VID is presented here in informal and accessible settings – right in the middle of the library. Researchers share insights from their own projects, and the public is invited to conversation and questions.

The events are free and open to students, staff and visitors. Research in the library is a meeting point for knowledge sharing, curiosity and dialogue.