Celebrating the Second Year of Beyond the Blurb

Beyond the Blurb is a health and wellbeing lecture series that critically examines the mental health crisis through an interdisciplinary lens. The series brings together experts from an array of disciplines to explore how societal crises shape student wellbeing.

Beyond the Blurb was developed by Oliver Culliton, class of 2025. As a Psychology major, Oliver recognized that students are struggling under immense pressure coming from countless sources, profoundly shaping their academic and personal lives.

Oliver saw an urgent need for meaningful community discussions—to try to go beyond the blurb. As Oliver explains it, “the ‘blurb’ reflects how mental health is often reduced to a vague, sanitized, and superficial concept—addressed with quick fixes like prescription drugs and stress balls. In reality, students are navigating an overwhelming convergence of stressors, including Covid-19, climate anxiety, economic instability, political unrest, social isolation, and addictive technologies. This is an urgent issue that demands deeper engagement. Beyond the Blurb challenges simplistic narratives around mental health, pushing for deeper conversations that confront the complexity of our time.”

Oliver pitched the idea for the Beyond the Blurb lecture series as part of our 2024 Shark Tank competition. His proposal won the prize for the Best Purchase Community Enhancement Idea. With generous start-up support from the Dr. E. Lawrence Deckinger Family Foundation, Oliver organized and launched the Beyond the Blurb lecture series in the spring of 2025. Speakers included Professors Krystal Perkins (Psychology), Allyson Jackson (Environmental Studies), Casey Haskins (Philosophy), and Catherine Van Bomel (Counseling Center).

Working in collaboration with the School of Natural and Social Sciences, Oliver has organized the second year of Beyond the Blurb. Featured fall speakers will include Professor Matthew Immergut (Sociology), who will speak about meditation as a tool in the age of distraction, and Professor Aviva Taubenfeld (Literature), who will speak about coping with perfectionism and how to move beyond it.