CMBC LECTURE | Marion Thain "Attention Studies: Configuring a New 'Interdisciplinary Discipline'"
Attention Studies: Configuring a New 'Interdisciplinary Discipline'
Distraction is experienced as one of the key challenges of our time. Digital distractions have been blamed for everything up to and including the destruction of democracy. How can universities rise to the challenge of providing a research base for exploring the concept of attention? Every discipline studies attention in some form or another. Psychology, neurobiology and psychiatry study systems of attention within the brain and the person. Social science, and humanities disciplines study the politics, sociologies and cultural workings of attention. The arts explore how different art forms manipulate attention differently and for different ends. All of these disciplines use radically different methodologies in their exploration of attention and all explore different facets of the same attention system. So, what happens if we try to bring all of this together to articulate a new 'interdisciplinary discipline' of Attention Studies, capable of…
University Event Topic: Lectures & Meetings. School: Emory College. Department / Organization: Center for Mind Brain and Culture. Series: CMBC Lectures. Building/Room: Mathematics & Science Center. Speaker/Presenter: Marion Thain
Director of Edinburgh Futures Institute
Professor, Culture and Technology | University of Edinburgh. Event Open To: Emory Community. Cost: Free.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
CMBC LECTURE | Melissa Perreault "A diversity of perspectives for inclusive research: Bridging Indigenous and Western ways of knowing"
"A diversity of perspectives for inclusive research: Bridging Indigenous and Western ways of knowing"
It has been well established that a diversity of perspectives leads to greater innovation and scientific advancements. However, the integration of diverse perspectives can be daunting for some due to a lack of understanding, fear of punitive actions when errors are made, or simply the lack of desire to put in the work. The goal of this talk is to demonstrate the value of diverse perspectives in enhancing both breadth of knowledge and humility in research and clinical practices for brain health. Highlighting some common features of Indigenous epistemologies that are also significant components of Euro-Western science, some of the core features inherent in traditional ways of knowing, learning, teaching, exploring, and communicating in Indigenous cultures will be described. Artificial intelligence and neurotechnology, and the associated risks of colonial entrenchment, will also be discussed. As neuroscience…
University Event Topic: Lectures & Meetings. School: Emory College. Department / Organization: Center for Mind Brain and Culture. Series: CMBC Lectures | Frontiers in Neuroscience | AXON. Building/Room: Whitehead Biomedical Research Building. Speaker/Presenter: Melissa Perrault
Professor, Ontario Veterinary College, Department of Biological Sciences | University of Guelph, Canada. Event Open To: Emory Community. Cost: Free.
Friday, October 30, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
CMBC LECTURE | Talia Dan-Cohen
LECTURE TITLE AND ABSTRACT forthcoming.
University Event Topic: Lectures & Meetings. School: Emory College. Department / Organization: Center for Mind Brain and Culture. Series: CMBC Lectures. Speaker/Presenter: Talia Dan-Cohen
Associate Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology
Associate Director of the Center for the Humanities
Department of Anthropology | Washington University in St. Louis. Event Open To: Emory Community. Cost: Free.
Friday, November 6, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
CMBC LECTURE | Robert Wilson
LECTURE TITLE AND ABSTRACT forthcoming.
University Event Topic: Lectures & Meetings. School: Emory College. Department / Organization: Center for Mind Brain and Culture. Series: CMBC Lectures. Speaker/Presenter: Robert "Bob" Wilson
Associate Professor, School of Psychology | College of Sciences | Georgia Institute of Technology. Event Open To: Emory Community. Cost: Free.
Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
CMBC BOOK LAUNCH | Antonis Iliopoulos "Early Body Ornaments and the Origins of Our Semiotic Mind"
Early Body Ornaments and the Origins of Our Semiotic Mind
What can the origins of self-adornment tell us about the evolution of the human mind? Were humans making ornaments more than 70,000 years ago in order to express ideas and ideals that they already had, or was ornament-making a process that drove the evolution of symbolic concepts and aesthetic values in the first place? Instead of seeing artifacts as the epiphenomenal products of processes that take place strictly within the braincase, Iliopoulos argues that objects can play an active role in shaping human cognition and that they provide the scaffolding on which a mind like ours could evolve. In making this proposal, his book draws inspiration from various disciplines including archaeology, anthropology, philosophy, and semiotics. The framework that results from his interdisciplinary approach allows him to address both the nature and the emergence of our unique capacity to use material signs. Early body ornaments thus become a test case for how things…
University Event Topic: Lectures & Meetings. School: Emory College. Oxford College. Department / Organization: Center for Mind Brain and Culture. Series: CMBC Events. Speaker/Presenter: Antonis Iliopoulos
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy | Oxford College of Emory University
Panel Discussants:
Sandy Blakely, Classics | Emory University
Dietric Stout, Anthropology | Emory University
John Stuhr, Philosophy | Emory University. Event Open To: Emory Community. Cost: Free.
Thursday, November 12, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM.