Indiana University organizes a symposium titled “Empathy: Self, Society, Culture” on November 11-12, 2011.
Growing out of a two-year grant-supported project on “Virtuous Empathy: Scientific and Humanistic Investigations” this symposium aims to explore theories and practices of empathy. Papers are invited to explore both virtuous and vicious forms of empathy, and to do so from a variety of perspectives. Proposals for papers are invited in three broad categories: Empathy and Psychology; Empathy and Ethics; and Empathy in Culture, History, and Society.
I have highlighted the final category since it is one where cultural neuroscience can make its own contributions to. In this regard, I recommend reading the following papers:
- “Towards a Cultural Neuroscience of Empathy and Prosociality” by Joan Chiao (2011)
- “Empathy as cultural process: insights from the cultural neuroscience of empathy” is a review by Cheon, Mathur and Joan Chiao (2010)
- “Neural basis of extraordinary empathy and altruistic motivation” is a paper by Mathur, Harada, Lipke and Chiao (2010)
- “Do You Feel My Pain? Racial Group Membership Modulates Empathic Neural Responses” is a paper by Xu, Zuo, Wang and Han (2009)
For more information about applying and submitting proposals link here.
