Talk at The University of Edinburgh, June 8/9th

I’m thrilled to be part of the symposium Minds and brains in everyday life: Embedding and negotiating scientific concepts in popular discourses, at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, The University of Edinburgh (UK).  

From the website: “This 2-day symposium aims to enable interdisciplinary discussion of how mind and brain figure in everyday understandings of ourselves, both historically and in contemporary society. The symposium addresses questions such as: How are mind and brain conceptualized, imagined and quantified in everyday life? How do (neuro)psychological discourses influence understandings of mind and brain outside of expert circles? How do these inform concepts of the self, social practices and social relationships in fields such as education, parenting, mental health and law? How do ideas of mind and brain figure in popular media discourses and what are consequences of the popular imagination? Finally, how can we use such analyses to reflect on historical and contemporary configurations of humanity?”

The program is exciting, with speakers such as Hilary & Steven Rose, Torsten Heinemann, Vincent Pidioux, and Tinkeke Broer (who organized this, together with Susanne Schregel). I’m up just before Hilary & Steven Rose, who will talk about their new book, which also deals with the promises and perils around the concept of brain plasticity. In my presentation, titled ‘Living Well with your Brains: moral repertoires of a plastic brain’, I’ll present some conclusions of my PhD.

If you’re in the neighbourhood, please join June 8th & 9th!