The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health at University College London (UCL) have hosted an annual summer short course exploring the linkages between emotional well-being and physical health outcomes. The course had been run annually between 2021 and 2025, alternating between UCL and Harvard Chan (and virtually in 2021), and has involved core faculty from both universities as well as from other institutions. This website serves provides an overview of the history of the course, including information on the faculty and subjects covered. With a target audience of junior scholars (junior faculty and postdoctoral fellows) and doctoral-level graduate students, the course provided attendees with a systematic and rigorous overview of the relationship between positive emotional well-being and physical health, drawing on a variety of empirical methods with careful consideration of measurement issues.

​

The ongoing global health crisis reinforces the need for our work and has thrown into relief some key issues worthy of attention going forward. The course, which partially focuses on identifying positive assets that promote health, including understanding critical components that underlie not only well-being but also resilience, has been particularly relevant. With advances in research ongoing, the course represented an opportune moment to bring together what we know about well-being resilience, and health.

​

​The course was interdisciplinary in nature, and covered topics including epidemiology, interventions, social determinants, biobehavioural processes, and methodology. By providing state-of-the-art, evidence-based knowledge, the course aimed to prepare and inspire a future generation of scholars and researchers to work in this field. Upon completion of the course, participants should have had a solid understanding of recent research and discourse on the linkages between emotional well-being and physical health outcomes and should have been prepared to use this information to inform their own education, research, and teaching. In addition, participants built an interdisciplinary network of potential partners and collaborators with shared interests in the field.