Shankar Vedantam's Keynote will kick off this year's Illinois Library Conference. Vedantam will explore the ways in which unconscious factors shape our everyday judgments and perceptions. This highly engaging talk will invite you to feel -- not just hear about -- the effects of unconscious biases on the mind. Topics to be discussed include:
- The role of books and other educational materials in shaping the unconscious biases of small children and what we can do to reduce these biases.
- The challenge of misinformation -- an exploration of the many biases that cause us to see the world not as it is, but as we would like it to be. This module will explore ways of overcoming misinformation, whether in politics, policy, or in our personal lives. We will examine how books and learning (and libraries!) can play an important role in this process of building an informed democracy.
- The power of storytelling, and how it is bound up in the way the hidden brain operates. We will delve into research that ties storytelling and imagination to academic and social functioning, with some discussion about the ways in which neuroscientists are studying the effects of reading on the mind.
Shankar Vedantam is a social science correspondent with National Public Radio and the author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives. The focus of his reporting is on human behavior and the social sciences, and how research in those fields can get listeners to think about the news in unusual and interesting ways.
Register Today!
|
iREAD Summer Reading Programs
Latest Library JobLine Listings
