CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The annual “Culture Talk” at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will feature Illinois’ chancellor and its dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and one of the country’s leading authorities on language and mind.
Chancellor Nancy Cantor, LAS Dean Jesse Delia and Harvard psychologist Steve Pinker will grapple with a broad range of issues relating to psychology, culture and politics beginning at 7:30 p.m. March 9 (Tuesday) in the Colwell Playhouse of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana.
The event, which is free and open to the public but requires advance tickets, focuses on issues of critical importance to the future well-being of the arts in an era of globalization, rapidly advancing technologies, mass media, and vast social and political change. Specific topics include the fundamental differences between men and women, the psychological underpinnings of violence and the role of the creative arts in our culture.
Pinker, the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, is a prize-winning author who frequently writes for the popular press on subjects ranging from politically correct language to the genetic enhancement of human beings.
His most recent book, “The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature,” was published in 2002. Previous books include “The Language Instinct” (1994), “How the Mind Works” (1997) and “Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language” (1999).
While on campus, Pinker also will give a free public lecture on “The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.” The lecture begins at 2 p.m. March 10 (Wednesday) in the auditorium of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, 405 N. Mathews, Urbana.
Cantor’s academic field is psychology, where her interest is on personality and social psychology and on personality and cognition. She has co-written three books and is the author or co-author of many book chapters and scientific journal articles.
Delia’s home department is speech communication. His research centers on interpersonal communication theory and research, social antecedents of development in social cognition and communication, and comparative and cross-cultural communication.
Pinker’s visit is sponsored by the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, and the “Culture Talk” is co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study, the Dean’s Office of the College of Fine and Applied Arts and Krannert Center.
Pinker’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Beckman Institute and IPRH.
To obtain tickets for “Culture Talk” contact the Krannert Center ticket office at 217-333-6208.
