Working title
Mental Health Challenges and Recovery in Serious Games for Adolescents and Emerging Adults: Conceptualizations, Design Interpretations, and Game Representations
Short description of the PhD project
Mental health challenges often emerge during adolescence and early adulthood, yet many individuals experience barriers to accessible, engaging, and meaningful support. This PhD project, part of the NEON Young Norway study, examines how mental health challenges and recovery are understood and shaped within serious games for adolescents and emerging adults.
Using a process oriented approach, the project combines a scoping review of academic literature, a qualitative study of student game developers working with real life recovery narratives, and an analysis of the resulting serious game implementations. By tracing how meanings of mental health and recovery move from research discourse through design interpretation to playable games, the study contributes knowledge relevant for recovery oriented and ethically reflective digital mental health game design.
Time
Monday 11 May 2026 kl 09:00 - 12:00
Place
Seminar i HB120 (Styrerom). And digital on this link
Supervisors
- Main supervisor: Associate Professor Helga Diis Isfold, FSV
- Co-supervisor: Professor Kristin Berre Ørjasæter, FSH
Evaluation committee
- Associate Professor Samira Behboudi Gandevani, FSH
- Associate Professor Ingunn Skjesol, FSH
Program
| Time | Activity |
| 09:00-09:05 | Welcome by Helga Diis Isfold (main supervisor) |
| 09:05-09:35 | Teddy Nambaziira presents her work and questions for discussion |
| 09:35-09:45 | Break |
| 09:45-10:30 | Comments and discussion between the candidate and the opponent Ingunn Skjesol, FSH |
| 10:30-10:45 | Break |
| 10:45-11:30 | Comments and discussion between the candidate and the opponent Samira Behboudi Gandevani, FSH |
| 11:30-12:00 | IInput and questions from the audience |
