SINAPSIS- Convergence-CRÉ Third Science Café: Fiction, Social Cognition and Empathy  – Brain, Books & Beyond.

Moderator:

Fernanda Pérez-Gay Juárez, MD, Ph.D. – Postdoctoral researcher, McGill University

Panellists:

Keith Oatley, Ph.D. – Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Toronto and Science Professor Emeritus, Applied Psychology and Human Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

-Yael Halevi-Wise, Ph.D. –  Associate Professor & Chair of Jewish Studies, McGill University

-Erin Soros, Ph.D. –  Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University

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Description :

SINAPSIS, The Convergence Initiative and the Centre de Recherche en Éthique are pleased to invite you to the third science café of our cycle Art, Neuroscience and Wellbeing. In this occasion, we will explore the links between fiction, social cognition and empathy! Our Scientific Cafés aim to host open dialogues between artists, philosophers and neuroscientists. We hope to share with you cutting-edge scientific knowledge while reinforcing interdisciplinary exchanges and supporting the role that arts and humanities play in our society.

Can fiction help us better understand other people’s inner worlds? Through a series of black marks on a paper sheet or a screen, literature manages to build entire universes. Reading a book can transport us to other times, show us unknown places and introduce ourselves to characters we will never come across in real life. Further than that, it can make us experience the feelings of characters that exist only within its pages. How is this possible? In this Science Café, our panellists will discuss this idea from three angles. Keith Oatley, writer and leading expert on the psychology of fiction, will guide us through the cognitive neuroscience of fiction and social cognition. Yael Halevi-Wise, researcher of the history and the nature of the novel as a genre and author of the book « Interactive fictions », will speak about the novel as a window to social dilemmas and Erin Soros, award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction and postdoctoral researcher will explore the depiction of madness in fictional work, including her own. Join us for a relaxed evening of interdisciplinary exchanges about brains, books and beyond!