ROOM’s 10th Anniversary Gala: What Drives Us
On Thursday, July 23, 2026, we were thrilled to host ROOM’s 10th Anniversary Gala featuring our 2026 Coline Covington awardee, Dr. Mark Solms from Cape Town, Samreen Makhfi from Kabul, and Margaret Fulton from Minneapolis. The theme of this year’s Gala was What Drives Us. Recalling Margaret Fulton’s essay, which was rejected by an analytic publication for being “too political,” to celebrating Samreen Makhfi and dozens of other brave women whose voices have been silenced and whose lives have been catastrophically repressed, this gala was a true community celebration of the artists, poets, and fortitude that have driven ROOM for 10 years.
Presenting Mark Solms with the Coline Covington Award for the transformational impact he has had in broadening our psychoanalytic understanding of what drives us all was especially meaningful. At his fireside chat with Aneta Stojnik, Mark Solms made a transformative case for what drives our human species and explained what healing ourselves actually requires, and why, as a neuroscientist, he has come to believe that psychoanalysis is our only cure. On the evening before the gala, in a sold-out, in-person event, he generously expanded on his ROOM 6.24 essay In My Backyard, describing the feelings of grief, shame, fear, and care that drove him to seek buried facts and find new ways to address the continuing trauma of slavery and apartheid. For 10 years, ROOM has existed at the interface between the personal and the political. Our 2026 Coline Covington awardee, Mark Solms, embodied how our cultural and political milieu impacts our psychology, and how our psychology drives the world.
It’s not too late to receive the recording of this extraordinary celebration and join us as we continue on. Donate by August 14, 2026, and we’ll share the recording with you.
2026 Honoree: Mark Solms
Read more about Mark Solms, PhD
Professor Mark Solms is a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society and the American and South African Psychoanalytic Associations (APsA, SAPA). He is Director of Neuropsychology at the Neuroscience Institute of the University of Cape Town and honorary lecturer in Neurosurgery at St Bartholomew’s and Royal London Hospital Medical School. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists. He is director of the Science Department of APsA and director of Training for SAPA. He has received numerous honours and awards, including the Sigourney Prize and the Outstanding Scientific Contribution Award of the International Psychoanalytical Association. He has published 350 scientific papers, and nine books, the latest being The Only Cure: Freud and the Neuroscience of Mental Healing (2026). He is the authorized editor and translator of the Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 volumes) and the forthcoming Complete Neuroscientific Works of Sigmund Freud (4 volumes).
Presenters
Margaret Fulton, PhD
Margaret Fulton, Ph.D, ABPP, LP is a member of the Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC) and the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis (CCP). She was previously a member of the Minnesota Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (MPSI) where she was on the faculty for ten years and was Past-President of the Society. Margaret also served on the Minnesota Board of Psychology for five years and she currently has a private practice in psychoanalysis in Minneapolis, MN.
Elizabeth Kandall, PhD
Elizabeth Kandall, Ph.D, is a psychologist/psychoanalyst and student of Zen Buddhism. She received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte where Ada Limon was her teacher and thesis advisor. She serves on the Board of Directors at Poets House and as a Poetry Editor at ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action. Her first book of poetry titled, Advanced Subtraction is forthcoming later this year with Kelsay Books.
Eugene Mahon, MD
Eugene Mahon is a physician, a psychoanalyst, a graduate in child analysis and adult analysis at the Columbia psychoanalytic Center for Training and Research where he is a training and supervising analyst. He is also a member of the Center for Advanced Psychoanalytic Studies, Princeton New Jersey since 1978. He has written extensively not only on clinical psychoanalysis ( a book on Dreams, SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS, published in Italian as LA SOSTANZA DEI SOGNI) but also on the application of analysis to literature, having published essays on Sophocles, Dante, Shakespeare, Coleridge, Wilde, James Joyce. He publishes a monthly Substack blog on poetry, dreaming and psychoanalysis for the Psychoanalytic Quarterly. He has published a psychoanalytic fairy tale called RENSAL THE REDBIT published in Italian as RENSAL IL LEPROSO; a volume of Poetry called BONESHOP OF THE HEART. One of his poems Steeds of Darkness was set to music by the American composer Miriam Gideon.
Samreen Makhfi
Samreen Makhfi was born in 2004 in Pakistan and grew up with a deep love for learning and service. She completed middle school at Qurtuba School in Pakistan and continued her high school studies at Afghan-Turk Schools in Kabul. When the Taliban took over during her 11th grade, she persevered and finished her senior year through a U.S.-based accredited online high school. Today, she teaches World History and World Religions while pursuing double bachelor’s degrees in Health Science and Law & Political Science.
Samreen is also a writer. Her first memoir is in the process of publication, and she has composed more than forty poems that reflect the experiences and resilience of Afghan girls. She serves as co-editor of an online monthly publication that amplifies the voices of young Afghan women, sharing their stories of courage and hope.
Francesca Schwartz, PhD
Dr. Francesca Schwartz is a psychoanalyst and a member of the Institute for Psychoanaltyic Training and Research (IPTAR) where she is on faculty and supervises in the Child Analytic Program, the Externship Program, and serves as co-chair on ‘Beyond the Basic Curriculum’. She is on faculty at the William Alanson White Institute where she teaches treatment of adolescence and the formulation of adolescent development in adult psychoanalysis. She is a multimedia artist with a studio based in New York. The resonance between art and psychoanalysis is the focus of her writings and practice as a multimedia artist. She serves as ROOM’s Art Editor and is a member of ROOM’s Editorial Board and Board of Directors, where her mission is to bring the convergence of art and psychoanalysis to the public forum of politics and culture.
Participating Hosts
Hattie Myers, PhD
Hattie Myers, PhD, is a Training and Supervising psychoanalyst at IPTAR. She is the editor in chief at ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action.
Isaac Slone, MA
Isaac Slone is a psychoanalytic candidate at the Contemporary Freudian Society in New York City. He serves on ROOM’s board of directors and is the co-host of the “Voices from ROOM” podcast.
Aneta Stojnić, PhD
Aneta Stojnić, Ph.D, FIPA is a member of Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, in New York, a director of IPTAR’s Child and Adolescent Program, faculty member and supervisor. She is a senior editor at the magazine ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action and co-host of the “Voices from ROOM” podcast. Alongside psychoanalysis, Aneta’s areas of research include artistic and theoretical practices at the intersections of art, culture and politics. She has published three books and three co-edited volumes, as well as dozens of peer-reviewed articles. She regularly presents her work at conferences and public forums worldwide. She maintains a private practice in NYC, working with children, adolescents and adults.
About the Award
The Coline Covington Award honors individuals who have had profound social impact by making visible what has remained in the shadows. Their courage inspires us to see ourselves and experience others in new ways that transcend obstacles and ignite change. Their work embodies the essence of ROOM’s recognition of the power of relationships to heal and transform our worlds following in the footsteps of Coline Covington. Dr. Covington’s trans-disciplinary work as a psychoanalyst, prolific author, and political activist captures her extraordinary devotion to the possibility of occupying our humanity more fully. The inaugural award was presented to 2024 honoree Dr. Bandy X. Lee for her bravery in confronting authoritarianism and social violence, and in 2025, Lord John Alderdice received the award for his courage in facing divisions, connecting communities, and forging peace through analytic thought.
Who was Coline Covington
Dr. Coline Covington was a highly accomplished psychoanalyst, former chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council and author of numerous books and articles on political/social psychology. From 2011 to 2013 she was a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and a visiting research fellow in international politics and development at the Open University. In conjunction with the London Metropolitan Police, Dr. Covington set up the first victim-offender mediation project in the country. Dr. Covington was a fellow of the International Dialogue Initiative, a think tank founded for politicians and psychoanalysts to work together to understand the effect of past trauma and large group anxieties on intransigent political conflict. Her last book, “Whose to Blame: Collective Guilt on Trial” was published shortly before her death. Dr Covington joined ROOM during its first year, contributed several essays, and was a passionate proponent of ROOM’s mission until her untimely death.
Special thanks to our award sponsors:
Special thanks to our award sponsors:
* If you purchased gala tickets but can’t attend on July 23, don’t worry—you’ll have access to the event recording for two weeks afterward.
*All proceeds support ROOM‘s ongoing work as a free, accessible global forum for analytic action. All donations are tax deductible.