SPECIAL EVENT

Hello everyone,

Mid-Michigan Atheists and Humanists will participate in a joint event with CFI | MSU this month in hosting a lecture, titled “Bad to the Bone: Horrors!–Can Our Genes Help Make Us Act Badly?” This lecture will be presented by Professor Barbara Oakley, PhD, who is author of a recent best selling book, “Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend.”

Description
This is a great opportunity to enjoy an outside the box look at interdisciplinary connections between psychology and many different fields, including history, sociology, politics, and biology. Professor Barbara Oakley uses neuroscience and evolutionary theory--as well as an unusually adventurous background that has earned her the nickname of a "female Indiana Jones," to knit together disparate pieces of research that point toward answers to one of the most compelling questions today--why do some people intentionally inflect emotional and physical pain on others?

What others have said about Evil Genes:

“A fascinating scientific and personal exploration of the roots of evil, filled with human insight and telling detail.”

—Steven Pinker, Johnston Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and The Stuff of Thought.

About the Speaker
As a recent Vice President of the IEEE-Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, as well as a Fellow in the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, Dr. Oakley has worked hard to help build a public understanding of the bioengineering profession. Her research work involves investigations of the complex relationship between neurocircuitry and social behavior. Her recent best-selling book: Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend, was researched over a period of six years, and lauded by a number of top-ranked psychiatrists, psychologists, and neuroscientists from institutions such as Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley, and King's College, London.

Time: March 26th, 2009, 7:30 pm

Place: Room 118 Psychology Building (between Farm Lane and Physics Road)

Michigan State University

(See maps below)

Jim Hong, Director

Mid-Michigan Atheists and Humanists

Visitors’ parking is available at Ramp #6, located at the eastbound lane of Grand river Ave. and Mac Ave. which appears in the second map below: