The Role of Narrative in the Natural Sciences and Humanities

Registration is required via Eventbrite.

While all disciplines employ narrative in their work to summarize and communicate their theories, methods, and results, the realm of narrating (more colloquially known as storytelling) has traditionally been considered a literary or historical endeavor under the purview of the humanities and social sciences. This is no longer the case. As evidenced by the burgeoning fields of narrative medicine and science communication, narratives and narrating are also important tools for the natural sciences. Neuroscientists have even recently proposed that “narrative” may be a better way of theorizing about the processes by which the brain represents the context used to sort and order memories in order to create a timeline of events. In light of this development, the conference seeks to explore the following topics:

— What “narrative” means, and the role it plays, in the humanities, social sciences, journalism, law, the natural sciences, and medicine.
— Why humans create narratives–perspectives from anthropology to neuroscience.
— Narrating with “qualitative” and with “quantitative” data.
— Communicating to the public through narratives and storytelling.

This symposium follows on the conference, Evidence: An Interdisciplinary Conversation about Knowing and Certainty, held at Columbia University on April 21-22, 2017 and The Success of Failure: Perspectives from the Arts, Sciences, Humanities, Education, and Law, held at Columbia University on December 7-8, 2017. Similar in format, speakers from different disciplines are invited to share their perspective and then engage in a moderated discussion.

This conference is free and open to the public, but registration is required via Eventbrite. Please email Project Manager Roshana Nabi ([email protected]) with any questions.

Confirmed Speakers:
– Niall Bolger (Professor of Psychology, Columbia University)
– Maeve Glass (Associate Professor of Law, Columbia University Law School)
– Rishi Goyal (Director of Medicine Literature and Society Program and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center)
– Marianne Hirsch (Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Columbia University)
– Patrick Hogan (Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Professor of English, University of Connecticut)
– Robert Krulwich (Host of Radiolab, WNYC Studios)
– Nick Lemann (Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism and Dean Emeritus, Columbia University Journalism School)
– Cheryl Mattingly (Professor of Anthropology, University of Southern California)
– Keith Oatley (Professor Emeritus of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto)
– Laura Otis (Professor of English, Emory University)
– Harriet Ritvo (Arthur J. Conner Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
– Michael Shadlen (Professor of Neuroscience, Columbia University)
– Kendall Thomas (Nash Professor of Law, Columbia University Law School)
– Nasser Zakariya (Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley)
– Liza Zunshine (Bush-Holbrook Professor of English, University of Kentucky)

Conference Organizers:
– Rita Charon (Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine, Columbia University)
– Marwa Elshakry (Associate Professor of History, Columbia University)
– Matteo Farinella (Presidential Scholar in Society and Neuroscience, Columbia University)
– Stuart Firestein (Professor of Biological Sciences, Columbia University)
– Melinda Miller (Associate Director of the Center for Science and Society, Columbia University)
– Roshana Nabi (Project Manager at the Center for Science and Society, Columbia University)
– Pamela Smith (Seth Low Professor of History and Director of the Center for Science and Society, Columbia University)

Conference Sponsors:
– Center for Science and Society, Columbia University
– The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University
– Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University

This conference is supported, in part, by the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University and the John Templeton Foundation.