New Book “The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology”

Daniel Lende and Greg Downey of the Neuroanthropology blog have just brought out a new book, published by MIT Press, which is wonderfully titled (similarly to the 2009 conference) “The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology”. The book is available as hardcover or kindle version.

@daniel_lende is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida.

@gregdowney1 is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Macquarie University, Sydney

New Journal “Culture and Brain” – Open for Submissions

The first journal dedicated exclusively to cultural neuroscience has been launched and is now ready to receive manuscripts! The journal is titled “Culture and Brain“, published by Springer and edited by Prof. Shihui Han of the CSCN Lab in Peking. For the submission system, link here.

The journal “covers the mutual interaction between culture and human cognition and behavior”, “explores the influence of brain/sociocultural interaction on cognitive function and neural mechanisms” and “includes an expansive range of disciplines, from neuroscience to biology to anthropology and philosophy”.

5th FPR-UCLA Interdisciplinary Conference: Culture, Mind, and Brain: Emerging Concepts, Methods, Applications – 19–20 October 2012 / Los Angeles, California

5th FPR-UCLA Interdisciplinary Conference: Culture, Mind, and Brain: Emerging Concepts, Methods, Applications will be held at UCLA,  Los Angeles, California from 19–20 October 2012.

Description

“Many lines of research on culture, mind, and brain can no longer be neatly separated. Some questions run together, thanks to our growing understanding of the genome, the biological roots of human sociality, and the mutual constitution of cultures and selves, as well as the complex interactions between the physical, cultural, and social environments underlying health and illness.

The aim of this 2-day conference is to highlight emerging concepts, methodologies and applications in the study of culture, mind, and brain, with particular attention to:

1. cutting-edge neuroscience research that is successfully incorporating culture and the social world;
2. the context in which methods are used as well as the tacit assumptions that shape research questions; and
3. the kinds and quality of collaborations that can advance interdisciplinary research training.

The conference is designed to appeal to a wide academic audience of biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, epidemiologists, and those in related fields interested in learning about cutting-edge interdisciplinary research at the intersection of culture, mind, and brain.”

What I really love about this conference and what makes it even more promising is its actual focus on interdisciplinarity. The impressive speaker list includes Shinobu Kitayama, Shihui Han, Denise Park, Marco Iacoboni, Daniel Lende & Greg Downey (of the Neuroanthropology blog), Georg Northoff, Laurence J. Kirmayer and many more.

Registration

Early registration ends on August 20, 2012. Late registration from August 21, 2012 to September 20, 2012. There is no opportunity for poster presentations, but students may apply for limited conference scholarships to be refunded. For more information and registration link here. Please note that seating is very limited. Please note that the FPR conference in 2010 sold out two months before the end of early registration.

Psychology for the Third Millennium: Integrating Cultural and Neuroscience Perspectives

Psychology for the Third Millennium: Integrating Cultural and Neuroscience Perspectives

edited by Rom Harré and Fathali M. Moghaddam

Sage, 2012

Description

As the 21st Century opened, the discipline of psychology seemed to be separating into two radically distinct domains. Qualitative and Cultural Psychology focused on the discursive means for the management of meaning in a world of norms, while Neuropsychology and Neuroscience focused on the investigation of brain processes. These two domains can be reconciled in a hybrid science that brings them together into a synthesis more powerful than anything psychologists have achieved before. For the first time, there is the possibility of a general psychology in which the biological and the cultural aspects of human life coalesce into a unitas multiplex, unity in diversity. This textbook ambitiously aims to and succeeds in providing this unity.

Critical Neuroscience: A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience

Critical Neuroscience: A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience
edited by  Suparna Choudhury and Jan Slaby

Wiley-Blackwell, 2012

Description

Critical Neuroscience brings together multi-disciplinary scholars from around the world to explore key social, historical and philosophical studies of neuroscience, and to analyze the socio-cultural implications of recent advances in the field.

- explores the creative potential for engaging experimental neuroscience with social studies of neuroscience

- Furthers the dialogue between neuroscience and the disciplines of the social sciences and humanities

- Transcends traditional scepticism, introducing novel ideas about ‘how to be critical’ in and about science

- Features contributions from eminent scholars including Steven Rose, Joseph Dumit, Laurence Kirmayer, Shaun Gallagher, Fernando Vidal, Allan Young and Joan Chiao

 

Joan Chiao and Shinobu Kitayama Announce International Cultural Neuroscience Consortium

 

“We are pleased to announce the development of the international cultural neuroscience consortium (ICNC). The goal of the ICNC is to build an interdisciplinary, international research network in cultural neuroscience.

In the next few years, we look forward to developing working groups, offer travel grants for speakers and students at conferences as well as an online website to connect researchers from interdisciplinary communities and facilitate collaborations in cultural neuroscience to study population health disparities and public policy in global context.

We are grateful for your support to develop the ICNC as well as your continued involvement in the ICNC activities. To further this initiative, we look forward to your responses to an online survey that will help us create research and teaching connections and an active database scholars and policymakers across diverse communities and cultures.

http://kellogg.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bwm41kUU0e3VCzG

Please feel free to distribute widely to your students, friends and colleagues and we look forward to receiving your suggestions by early November!”

 

via thefpr.org blog

Cultural Neuroscience and the Politics of Alterity – Talk by Laurence J. Kirmayer

Laurence J. Kirmayer gave a talk on cultural neuroscience and psychiatry last year that I have found very informative. In his talk, Kirmayer emphasizes that the brain needs to be understood as part of a larger social, cultural and political system. The talk was given on the 3rd of December 2010 at the “Talking Brains” conference at the “Einstein Forum” in Potsdam. In order to listen to the talk, link here, click on the play-button on the right side of the page and skip the intro (if you wish, since it is in German).

McGill University’s Summer Program in Social and Cultural Psychiatry – May/June 2011

In 1995, the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University inaugurated an annual summer school in social and cultural psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology. The program provides the conceptual background for research and clinical work in social and cultural psychiatry and will be of interest to:

• postdoctoral trainees, researchers, and clinicians in psychiatry and other mental health disciplines
• residents and graduate students in health and social sciences
• physicians, psychologists, social workers and health professionals

The summer program has reached its 17th edition this year, is directed by Laurence J. Kirmayer and will take place from 2nd May – 3rd June 2011. For more information, link here.

University of South Carolina’s 28th Annual Multicultural Symposium: Cultural Neuroscience – April 2011

The Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina will host its 28th Annual Multicultural Symposium on April 8th. The symposium is organized by the Black Psychology Graduate Student Association. This year’s topic is Cultural Neuroscience: Understanding How Biology & Culture Shape the Mind & Behavior.

Keynote speakers include:

• Dr. Lasana Harris, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University (neural correlates of person perception and decision-making)
• Dr. Joan Chiao, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University (psychological and neural processes underlying social behavior and emotion processing)
• Dr. Vivian Ota Wang, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health (genomics and public health)
• Dr. Susan Fiske, Department of Psychology, Princeton University (stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination).

For additional information on the programme and contact information, link here.

via University of South Carolina Psychology Department Chair’s Blog

Experimental Methods in the Study of Cognition and Culture – Course at the Summer University Programme at Aarhus University – August 2011

This year’s Summer University Programme at Aarhus University in Denmark will include an interesting course on “Experimental Methods in the Study of Cognition and Culture”.

Description: What can cognition and brain function tell us about cultural forms? And how does culture impinge on cognitive processing and brain functions? The interface between culture on the one hand, and cognition and brain science on the other is a fast-developing research area attracting numerous scholars and scientists with different backgrounds. Neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists, anthropologists, and humanists of various sorts seek to find out how evolved cognitive capacities, cultural learning and social and institutional forms interact to constrain, or even produce, human behavior. Such interdisciplinary work not only calls for a high degree of translatability between terminologies found in each individual discipline. It further calls for knowledge about, and experience with, different methodologies.