Ties van de Werff receives PhD degree

On May 16th, Ties van de Werff, researcher at the Research Centre for Arts, Autonomy and the Public Sphere, successfully defended his PhD thesis at Maastricht University. In his dissertation, titled Practicing the Plastic Brain: popular neuroscience and the good life, Ties explores the uptake of neuroscience knowledge in different societal practices of self-fashioning. Ties argues that scientific knowledge does not speak for itself, but that it has to be made relevant through activities of value work.

At the Research Centre, Ties will further develop his research by exploring what kinds of value work are at play in engaged forms of art. Ties van de Werff has been interviewed by the Dutch newspaper Trouw on his PhD thesis. You can read the interview online which has been published on 8 May.