Altruism in Times of Stress and Hardship
Learn how instincts for good are built into the human nervous system, and how early childhood environments may affect emotional resilience well into adulthood from two of Cal’s most innovative professors in social and behavioral science.
Program for all events
6 to 7 p.m. — Reception with hors d’oeuvres and no-host bar
an opportunity to network with fellow Cal alumni, parents, and friends of the University
7 to 8:30 p.m. — Lecture and Q&A session
$20 per person • $25 at the door • Seating is limited.
Speakers
DACHER KELTNER
Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology, serves as the Director of the Berkeley Greater Good Science Center and co-editor of the center’s magazine, Greater Good. Keltner’s research focuses on two time-honored questions. First is the biological and evolutionary origins of human goodness, with a special concentration on compassion, awe, love, and beauty. Second is the study of power, status, and social class, and the nature of moral intuitions. He is the co-author of two best-selling textbooks, more than 100 scientific articles, and is a contributor to New York Times Magazine and Utne Reader. His research has been covered by BBC News, CNN, NPR, TIME, Newsweek, The New York Times, and Utne Reader, which recently named Keltner one of “50 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World.”
Keltner’s most recent book, Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, was published in January 2009 by WW Norton Publishers and makes the case for an evolutionary approach to the emotions that promote human goodness.
DARLENE FRANCIS
Darlene Francis, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She heads her own basic research laboratory and holds cross appointments in Neuroscience, Psychology, and Public Health. She received her doctorate in Neurobiology from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Francis’s research program explores how biological, psychological, and social processes interact over a lifetime to influence health and vulnerability to disease. Her laboratory employs basic animal models to explore how these processes are causally related. The historic belief that information only flows in one direction, from the genome, is simply incorrect. Francis has data demonstrating that organisms with identical genotypes can manifest dramatically different phenotypic profiles in response to different environmental and social conditions. It appears that epigenetic processes may provide the missing link which will allow us to understand how social and political conditions, along with individual subjective experiences, can directly alter gene expression and thereby contribute to observed social inequalities in health. This level of multidisciplinary research can only be conducted with multiple collaborations that span many fields, from molecular epigenetics through to social epidemiology. In sum, Francis’s research explores how experience and social factors are transduced into biology.
