September 2015
Andrea Wulf – The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World
In The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, author Andrea Wulf reveals the extraordinary life of the visionary German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and explores how he created the way we understand nature today. Though almost forgotten today, his name lingers everywhere from the Humboldt Current to the Humboldt penguin. Humboldt was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether climbing the highest volcanoes…
Find out more »October 2015
Animal Studies and Environmental Studies
This panel of medievalists from NYU, CUNY, and Columbia will introduce the diverse ways in which animal and environmental approaches are changing medieval studies. Each panelist will begin with a compact statement of what these approaches are and what they offer, together with an example from his or her current research and writing, as a preface to discussion among those present.
Find out more »Bert Hansen – Louis Pasteur and the Pleasures of Art
Speaker: Bert Hansen, History of science and medicine; American history, Baruch College, CUNY
Find out more »“Thinking, Fast and Slow? Some Field Experiments to Reduce Crime and Dropout in Chicago”
**Please RSVP by Tuesday, October 6th to https://cupop.formstack.com/forms/rsvp. Lunch will be provided for those who RSVP and attend seminar at the School of Social Work. Abstract: We present the result of three large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of interventions carried out on the south and west sides of Chicago. All the interventions involve using cognitive behavioral therapy-based programming to improve the outcomes of low-income youth. Two of our RCTs test a program called Becoming a Man (BAM) developed by Chicago-area…
Find out more »Anita Schroven – Engaging Global Health during Ebola: Anthropological Knowledge Production and Translation
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa changed many relationships, between researchers and informants, between academic institutions and humanitarian agencies. With a mediatised need for anthropology and a willingness amongst anthropologists to engage with the global health machineries, a new professional match seems to be made. However, reality in an emergency intervention is different. This talk will examine the journeys of anthropologists in institutional settings and the production and translation of anthropological knowledge in the response to the Ebola outbreak. With…
Find out more »Gerd Kempermann – The Neurobiology of Individuality
This event is part of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center Distinguished Lecturer Series. In this lecture, Dr. Kempermann asks what happens if, in the equation G x E describing the classical gene x environment interaction thought to be underlying complex traits, both variables are kept constant? Will individuality still emerge? In his study of genetically identical mice living in an enriched environment, his team found that individual longitudinal behavioral traits correlated with individual levels of adult hippocampal neurogenesis,…
Find out more »Nicholas Langlitz – Vatted Dreams: Neurophilosophy and the Politics of Phenomenal Internalism
Speaker: Nicholas Langlitz, PhD, Associate Professor of Anthropology, The New School Respondent: David Barack, PhD, Presidential Scholar in Society and Neuroscience, Columbia University Despite much social scientific work on the neurosciences, little ethnographic and historical attention has been paid to the field of neurophilosophy. Yet anthropologists studying brain research occasionally critique neurophilosophers for reducing the mind to the brain while affirmatively citing philosophers of mind who present the mind as emerging from interactions between brain, body and environment. This article examines the ostracized camp of so-called…
Find out more »Eating Through Time: Food, Health and History
The New York Academy of Medicine celebrates the intersection between food, history, and public health at the Eating Through Time Festival on Saturday, October 17. Using food as our common theme, they will bring together chefs, historians, writers, and public health experts to discuss the past, present, and future of food in society, culture, and policy. This daylong event will include lectures, panels, demonstrations, workshops, book signings, performances, tastings, food trucks, a pop-up bookstore and marketplace, and historic cookbooks on…
Find out more »The Metabolic Condition: From Concept to Science, Medicine, and Culture
The Science and Society Lectures are an interdisciplinary series bringing together researchers to examine an important scientific or public health topic from multiple angles. Speakers: Hannah Landecker, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director for the Institute for Society and Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles Derek LeRoith, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine Moderator: Jonathan Weiner, PhD, Pulitzer Prize winning author and Maxwell M.…
Find out more »