Online Living Library & Symposium

 
 
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Online living library and symposium: Thursday 11 December 2025

Recently, three PhD researchers from different countries have conducted studies on the Living Library. We’ve invited them to present their findings to anyone interested. The event will take place via Zoom and will include time for questions and discussion.

Speakers and research topics of the Symposium:

  • Afreen Khalid (Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands) — Living Libraries in the workplace

  • Julia Schreiber (University of Sussex, United Kingdom) — The impact on Living Books

  • Fani Giannakopoulou (University of West Attica, Greece) — Bibliotherapy and the Living Library

This will be the second Symposium we organize. You can find all previous research here.

Online Living Library

Before the Symposium, we’ll host an online Living Library. Because it’s online, both our Living Books and readers can join from around the world. Each conversation will take place in small groups of up to five readers per book. A couple of days before the event we will send you an email with all books, so you can select your preferred title. Each reader can have one conversation.

The book titles

Addicted (from Netherlands), ADHD (from Georgia), Asexual (from Hungary), Bisexual (from Armenia), Depression (from Netherlands), Fled from a cult (from Netherlands), Grief specialist who lost a child (from South Africa), Homeless (from Netherlands), Palestinian (from Palestine), Pastor mediating gangs (from South Africa), Trans x Gender (from Ukraine), Woman with autism (from Netherlands)

Program

19:00–20:00 — Online Living Library
20:00–21:15 — Symposium

More information about the speakers

Afreen Khalid is a PhD researcher at Radboud University, Netherlands. She is conducting experiments to gain insights into the cognitive mechanisms underlying prejudice and how we can sustainably reduce it. For the symposium, she will present her research on the impact of the Living Libraries in the workplace.

Julia Schreiber is a PhD researcher from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, and a certified peace practitioner. Her work focuses on different approaches to social change, justice and social cohesion. For the symposium, she will present data on some of the experiences of and outcomes for 'books' during the Living Library.

Fani Giannakopoulou is a librarian, researcher and PhD candidate at the University of West Attica (Greece). Her work explores the intersection between bibliotherapy, narrative practices and the Living Library as a space of empathy, reflection and social dialogue. At the symposium she will discuss how bibliotherapeutic principles and literary narratives can enrich and deepen the Living Library experience, highlighting the theoretical connections between the two fields.

Eva Alkema will moderate the symposium, just like the symposium we organized in 2023. She has organized many Living Libraries and she has written articles for the Living Library website. Currently, she works at a rehabilitation centre, as an applied psychologist.

Looking forward!
Please sign up here.

The online Living Library and Symposium is part of the project ‘Getting There Together’, funded by the European Union, in collaboration with Associació Educativa i Cultural Blue Beehive (Spain) and Szubjektív Értékek Alapítvány (Hungary). We also received great help from A StrangerKind (ASK) from South Africa.