dr. Kalliopi Ioumpa

I am interested in individual differences in empathy and prosocial behavior, and in how encounters with culture can promote social cognition.

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher within the META-MUSEUM Horizon Europe project at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, investigating how art influences neural, postural, and physiological responses. The aim is to understand art’s transformative potential and support the development of digital tools for co-creation with cultural professionals. Within META-MUSEUM, I engage in cross-disciplinary collaborations spanning digital humanities, heritage, and museum studies.

Bio

My academic background spans social and affective neuroscience (PhD, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience; MSc, Radboud University), biology (BSc, Democritus University), fine arts and design (BA, Gerrit Rietveld Academy), and person-centered counselling, art therapy, and play therapy (Epsyme Laboratory for Psychosocial Studies). In my research I have worked with neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, EEG) and quantitative as well as qualitative (imicro-phenomenology interviews) methodologies.

During my PhD, I used naturalistic paradigms to examine how individual differences in empathy shape prosocial behavior, learning under moral conflict, and the experience of agency, responsibility, and empathy within hierarchical contexts under authoritarian power. I later held a postdoctoral position at the Moral and Social Brain Lab at Ghent University, on interventions designed to enhance empathy and prosociality through perspective-shifting art experiences.

With a background in both science and art, I am deeply invested in cross-disciplinary collaboration and artistic research. I am co-founder of the NeuroNarratives art-science residency, and co-organizer of the Art of Neuroscience platform.