Improv Training Can Ease Social Anxiety

Felsman (left) doing improv with a house team called Brenda at Pointless Brewery & Theatre in Ann Arbor, which is now closed.
Jul. 7, 2023 —
Some people are apprehensive about participating in improv comedy because of its unscripted format that requires quick thinking to play off unpredictable ideas presented by others on stage or in the audience. But Northern Michigan University assistant professor Peter Felsman is the lead author of a published study providing the first evidence that improv training can significantly reduce a common trait of social anxiety and depression: discomfort with uncertainty.

Cumberlidge Attends Workshop in Berlin

Workshop participants at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany. From left: Pierre A. Mvogo Ndongo (Douala, Cameroon in Central Africa); Kristina von Rintelen, Curator of Crustaceans, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin; Thomas von Rintelen (Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, Museum für Naturkunde); Paul Clark (The Natural History Museum in London, UK); and Neil Cumberlidge (NMU).
Jun. 30, 2023 —
NMU BIology Professor Neil Cumberlidge recently attended a week-long freshwater crab workshop at the Museum für Naturkunde (Natural History Museum) in Berlin, Germany. He joined international colleagues working on new collections of freshwater crabs resulting from the group's biological surveys of three central and West African biodiversity hotspots in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone.