Dr. Mahzarin Banaji, the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University’s Department of Psychology, will present the 2010 John Kendall Lecture Series Address at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14 in Wallenberg Auditorium, located on the second level of the Alfred Nobel Hall of Science.
Banaji’s lecture is titled “Mind Bugs: The Science of Ordinary Bias,” and is free and open to the public.
Banaji studies human thinking and feeling as it unfolds in social contexts. Her focus is primarily on mental systems that operate in implicit or unconscious mode. In particular, she is interested in the unconscious nature of assessments of self and other humans that reflect feelings and knowledge about their social group membership that underlie the us/them distinction.
Born and raised in India, Banaji completed her undergraduate work at Nizam College and received an M.A. in Psychology from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India. She later received her Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1986.
From 1986 to 2001, Banaji taught at Yale University where she was the Rueben Post Halleck Professor of Psychology. In 2001, she moved into her current post at Harvard University. In 2005, she was elected fellow of the Society for Experimental Psychologists, in 2008 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2009 was named Herbert A. Simon Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Among her awards, she has received Yale’s Lex Hixon Prize for Teaching Excellence, a James McKeen Cattell Fund Award, the Morton Deutsch Award for Social Justice, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
The John Kendall Lecture Series was established to honor Dr. John Kendall for his contributions to the Gustavus Department of Psychology and for his support and influence on the careers of his students. Dr. Kendall was a member of the Gustavus psychology department for 15 years prior to becoming President of the College in 1980.
The Kendall Lecture, presented by a noted researcher in the field of psychology, is intended to recognize and commemorate Dr. Kendall’s abiding interest in and commitment to the empirical investigation of behavior and psychology as a science. Funding for the public address and classroom visits is provided through the John Kendall Lecture Series Endowment, established in 1985 through the efforts of departmental faculty and the financial contributions of psychology majors when Dr. Kendall was teaching in the department.
For more information about the John Kendall Lecture Series Address, contact the Gustavus Department of Psychology at 507-933-7413.
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