Through cross- and interdisciplinary collaborations between teacher, nursing, and medical education, we devise new instructional materials and innovative methods for mental health learning and teaching that strengthen the ability of European professional education to offer relevant, inclusive, and high-quality education.
Activities
The project is centered around four workshops with different focuses where key persons in the partnership meet to map, discuss and compare relevant comics, identify challenges and best practices in comics professional education, and develop new instructional materials and mental health teaching methods. Other important activities in the project include literature review, the inclusion of student perspectives, comics creation, and participation in scientific and public debates.
Project outcomes
The project aims to produce a strong European network for mental health teaching and instructional materials that create awareness and nuanced understanding of mental health issues. We develop holistic approaches that prepare teacher, nursing and medical students to meet and address mental health topics in schools and medical settings in ways that are inclusive and equitable. Other immediate results include student-made comics and an experimental project comic.
ECEDU Workshops
ECEDU Workshop 1: Graphic Medicine and Professional Education
The ECEDU project launched its first workshop at the historic Centro Anatomico of the University of Bologna. Over two days, the eight core researchers, medical students, and professional comics artists came together to explore how graphic medicine—the intersection of the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare —can inspire new approaches to teaching mental health in professional education.
Workshop Highlights
The workshop combined lectures, comics creation, and cross-disciplinary dialog, including:
- An introduction to the University of Bologna’s pioneering graphic medicine initiatives, including collaborations between the School of Medicine and the Academy of Fine Arts.
- A guest lecture by Ian Williams—doctor, comics artist, and founder of graphicmedicine.org.
- Hands-on creative sessions led by Williams, Stefano Ratti, and Fredric Gunve, where students experimented with making comics as a reflective tool.
- Development of the visual identity for the ECEDU project.
- Discussions on how mental health themed comics can function as pedagogical resources in professional training.
- Launching student centered and research driven activities to be continued and further developed at partner universities.
- Planning project dissemination strategies, including publications and outreach initiatives.
A Strong and Inspiring Start for ECEDU
The workshop set a solid foundation for the project’s next steps, fostering collaboration across disciplines and European countries while introducing innovative, creative methods for mental health teaching in professional education.
ECEDU Workshop 2: Mental Health Comics, Metacognition and Meta-Hermeneutics in Professional Education
Teaching with European Comics in Professional Education
Link to news story from the workshop (in Norwegian).
The second ECEDU workshop was hosted by the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) at the end of April 2026 at the Drammen campus. The workshop strengthened collaboration within the ECEDU consortium through a series of shared activities, including development of a multinational project library, interdisciplinary discussions of key terms such as mental health and trauma, and the testing of innovative comics-based learning tools.
Workshop Highlights
The workshop brought together the ECEDU team, USN researchers from both the humanities and health sciences, students from the teacher and nursing programs, and Norwegian visual artists Geir Yttervik and Ane Barstad Solvang.
Key activities included:
- Interdisciplinary discussions on mental health, initiated by Trude Klevan and Knut Tore Sælør (Centre for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, USN) through their talk “What is mental with mental health?”
- Guest lecture by sociologist Baptiste Brossard (University of York) titled “Trauma in Social Life: A Critical Perspective to Mental Health”
- Development of a multinational project library, comprising comics thematizing mental health from Norway, Sweden, Italy and Romania
- Design and testing of student-centered, comics-based activities, aimed at enhancing metacognitive, meta-hermeneutic, and creative skills
- Artist talk and creative workshop, led by visual artist Ane Barstad Solvang
- Guided tour at the MUNCH Museum, led by the Norwegian painter Geir Yttervik
- Collaborative project planning, including preparation for conference participation and the development of the first scientific publication.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration on Comics-Based Teaching
The workshop underscored the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue between the humanities and health sciences. It contributed to the development and testing of new approaches to teaching mental health in professional education.
Teaching with European Comics in Professional Education
