Dr. PhD Francesca Brencio is Teaching Fellow at School of Psychology of the University of Birmingham (UK) with a full-time teaching position. She is the founder and Director of the Pheno-Lab, A Theoretical Laboratory on Philosophy and Mental Health.
She studied Philosophy at University of Perugia (Italy), Theology at the Theological Institute in Assisi associated to Pontificia Universitas Lateranensis (Vatican City), and awarded a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Human Sciences from the University of Perugia (Italy). She was a post-doctoral researcher at the Western Sydney University (Australia) and the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (Germany).
She was Visiting Professor in the USA for the Winter Semester 2017 at the Hillsdale College (Michigan), Wisconsin University, and The SUNY in Buffalo. From 2018 to 2024 she was Associate Researcher in Philosophy at the Research Group “HUM018: Filosofía Aplicada: Sujeto, Sufrimiento, Sociedad” at the University of Seville (Spain).
Executive Committee Member of The Royal College of Psychiatrists Special Interest Group in Philosophy, since 2018 she actively collaborates with The Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice at St. Catherine's College at the University of Oxford (UK). Since January 2022 she is member of the Philosophy of Psychiatry Educators Network as part of the International Network for Philosophy and Psychiatry.
In November 2020 she awarded the title of Associate Professor according to the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) respectively for the fields of Theorethical Philosophy and History of Philosophy. In March 2021 she received The Seal of Excellence, awarded by the European Commission in the frame of EU Programme for Research and Innovation 2014-2020.
From September 2023 to July 2024 she was among the leading researchers of Co-production Scheme on OCD, entitled “Stuck on the puzzle. A philosophical inquiry on OCD”, as part of the broad international project entitled Renewing Phenomenological Psychopathology, funded by Wellcome Trust Grant at the University of Birmingham (UK).
Together with Prof. Matthew Broome, Director of the IMH at the University of Birmingham (UK), she co-leads The Birmingham Network for Phenomenology and Mental Health, funded by the University of Birmingham Interdisciplinary Research (IDR) Network+ Scheme, which runs from March 2025 to March 2026.
Her fields of investigation are phenomenology, hermeneutics, phenomenological psychopathology, philosophy of psychiatry, qualitative research and Heidegger Studies.
She has published over 100 scientific papers in prestigious international journals, both in philosophy and psychiatry. She has authored and edited the following books: F. Brencio (2024), (ed.) Phenomenology, Neuroscience and Clinical Practice. Transdisciplinary Experiences, Springer Nature, Cham; F. Brencio, R. De Biase (2025) (eds.), Metaphors in action. Humanities, medicine and the digital world, Springer-Nature, Cham (forthcoming); S. Ferrarello, F. Brencio, V. Bizzari, M. Englander (2025), “Phenomenological Psychopathology: Who, What and How? An analysis of key figures, advancements and challenges”, Special Issue of Frontiers in Psychology.
She is among the contributors of The APA Handbook of Humanistic and Existential Psychology (American Philosophical Association Press, 2025), Storia della Fenomenologia Clinica (UTET, Torino 2020), The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2019).
She also works as Certified APPA Philosophical Counsellor.
For a detailed list of her publications, please visit https://bham.academia.edu/FrancescaBrencio
