Celebrating the Second Year of Beyond the Blurb
The health and wellbeing lecture series created by Oliver Culliton ’25 critically examines the mental health crisis through an interdisciplinary lens.
Beyond the Blurb brings together experts from an array of disciplines to explore how societal crises shape student wellbeing.
Psychology major Oliver Culliton ’25 developed the series after recognizing how intensely students struggled under immense pressure from countless sources and how that pressure profoundly shaped their academic and personal lives.
Oliver saw an urgent need for meaningful community discussions—to try to go beyond the blurb.
“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,” Oliver explains.
“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 address coping with perfectionism and how to move beyond it.