LECTURE
 

Emotions Across Cultures

TUE 29 SEPTEMBER, 20:00
Auditorium, Tongersestraat 53

Prof. Batja Mesquita
Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Social and Cultural Psychology, University of Leuven
 

What if emotions aren’t just something we feel on our own, but something we do—together? In this lecture, Mesquita, author of Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions, explores the idea of emotions as relational experiences, rather than just internal ones. Drawing from cross-cultural research and personal stories, she challenges the Western idea that emotions live solely inside us, waiting to be expressed. Instead, she paints a richer, more connected picture—one where emotions are shaped between people and are deeply influenced by the cultural worlds we live in.

She ends by asking what this means for us: how do we navigate relationships in a multicultural society and a globalized world if emotions are shaped by culture?

This lecture is organised as part of the programme of De Nederlands Dansdagen