ASU Common Read with Daisy Fancourt: 'Art Cure'

ASU hosts British scientist and researcher Daisy Fancourt, author of "Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives," for a virtual visit on Oct. 27, 2026 at 10 a.m. 

ASU's Writing Programs has selected Fancourt's nonfiction book as its 2026-2027 common read and Fancourt will discuss the book and answer questions from faculty and students at this event.

The online event is open and free to the public; please register to attend.

About the common read

The goal of a common read program is to encourage first-year students to write about pressing social problems that are relevant to ASU’s mission as a public enterprise. By learning to write about such problems as a community, we increase the probability of finding solutions to them. This year, we will write about the arts and health.

About the book and its author

Shortlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, "Art Cure" is a groundbreaking exposé showing how the arts—alongside diet, sleep, exercise and nature—are the forgotten fifth pillar of health. From cradle to grave, engaging in the arts has remarkable effects on our health and well-being. This isn’t sensationalism, it’s science: the results of decades of studies gathering data from neuroimaging, molecular biomarkers, wearable sensors, cognitive assessments, and electronic health records. This book will fundamentally change the way you value and engage with the arts in your daily life and give you the tools to optimize how, when, and what arts you engage in to achieve your health goals.

Author Daisy Fancourt is professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London where she heads the Social Biobehavioural Research Group, and is director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. She has published 300 scientific papers and won over two dozen academic prizes. She is a multi-award-winning science communicator and has been named a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and BBC New Generation Thinker. Fancourt is listed as one of the most highly cited scientists in the world.

This event is hosted by Writing Programs in the Department of English with support from The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU and is also part of Humanities Week 2026.