We’re pleased to share the line up of our spring semester book talks! This semester includes a talk by the 2023 Dean’s Fellow Kathleen McCormick, doctoral student in Psychology. All book talks will be held in-person in Mann Library Room 160 and livestreamed, and will start at 4:30pm. You can find all recordings of our past Chats in the Stacks on our YouTube channel.
Thursday, March 28, 4:30pm
Mann Library, Room 160 and livestreamed
Growing Pains: The History of Human Development and The Future of The Field
In a 2003 interview psychologist Eleanor Gibson reflected on her long and celebrated career at Cornell, and her first years on campus, stating “When I first went to Cornell, Cornell University did not hire women” (Szokolszky, 2003). But Dr. Gibson was wrong. Across campus women worked as researchers and professors in the College of Home Economics, conducting interdisciplinary work designed to improve the lives of individuals and communities around them. This work went on to transform the field of psychology and the methods and theoretical orientation of developmental science. Join us for Growing Pains: The History of Human Development and The Future of The Field by 2023 Dean’s Fellow Kathleen McCormick, doctoral student in Psychology. In this talk McCormick will explore the history of human development and home economics, and the ways the field shaped and was shaped by the political environment of the postwar period.
Thursday, April 11, 4:30pm
Mann Library, Room 160 and livestreamed
The Consciousness Revolutions: From Amoeba Awareness to Human Emancipation
How it is that we share some aspects of consciousness with bacteria? How can consciousness arise in artificial machines? And what does consciousness have to do with our survival in the face of the unfolding climate catastrophe? These, and many other fundamental questions about consciousness, are explored in Shimon Edelman’s new book The Consciousness Revolutions: From Amoeba Awareness to Human Emancipation (Springer Nature, 2023). Edelman, professor in the Department of Psychology, will discuss how consciousness is fundamentally a kind of computation and how through the understanding of human consciousness we can develop better insights into the nature of our lived experience, our problems, our social dynamics, and our shared future.
Thursday, April 18, 4:30pm
Mann Library, Room 160 and livestreamed
Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos
Join us in-person or virtually for a live book talk with Lisa Kaltenegger, associate professor in Astronomy and founding director of Cornell University’s Carl Sagan Institute, discussing her new book Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos (Macmillan Publishers, 2024). This talk is co-hosted by Mann Library and the Math Library.
CANCELLED Thursday, May 2, 4:30pm
Mann Library, Room 160 and livestreamed
Wildlife Disease and Health in Conservation
Most existing and emerging infectious diseases have their origin in animal populations. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic the need to understand the cause and impacts of wildlife diseases, as well as how to manage them, has only become increasingly salient. Join us for a live, hybrid book talk with Robin Radcliffe, associate professor of practice in Wildlife and Conservation Medicine in the Veterinary School, and David Jessup, former senior wildlife veterinarian of the California Department of Fish and Game and former executive manager of the Wildlife Disease Association, for a discussion of their new coedited volume Wildlife Disease and Health in Conservation (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023).