NYS Writers Institute, November 18, 2014
4:15 p.m. Seminar | Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus
8:00 p.m. Reading | Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus

EVENT DETAILS:
Susan Pinker, developmental psychologist and bestselling science writer, will read from and discuss her new book, The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter (2014) on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 8 p.m. in the Standish Room, Science Library on the University at Albany’s uptown campus. Earlier that same day at 4:15 p.m., the author will offer an informal seminar in the same location. Free and open to the public, the events are sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute.

PROFILE
Susan Pinker, developmental psychologist and bestselling science writer, is the author of the new book, The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter (2014). Grounded in the new field of social neuroscience, The Village Effect presents convincing evidence that electronic communication can never replace the fundamentally human need for direct interaction. Indeed, she argues that the physical isolation enabled and encouraged by current communications technologies is a public health risk to be taken seriously.

The book is currently a national bestseller in Canada.

Michael Gazzaniga, “founding father” of cognitive neuroscience, called the book, “Brilliant and compelling,” and said, “Pinker shows us crucial personal interactions are essential to true human feelings.” The reviewer for the Financial Times (UK) called it “Entertaining” and said, “Citing a wealth of research and reinforced with her own arguments, Pinker suggests we should make an effort -- at work and in our private lives -- to promote greater levels of personal intimacy.” Publishers Weekly called it, “A hopeful, warm guide to living more intimately in a disconnected era.” In a one-sentence book review that appeared on the “One-Page” of the New York Times Magazine, Tyler Cowen summed up the message of the book as follows:  “Good peers help make centenarians.”

Pinker is also the author of the international bestseller, The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women and the Real Gender Gap (2008), winner of the William James Book Award of the American Psychological Association. The Booklist reviewer said, “Presented with flair, sensitivity, and determination, Pinker’s penetrating conclusions shed important new light on how gender differences affect every strata of contemporary existence.” Kirkus Reviews said, “Pinker crafts a biologically based and sure-to-be-controversial examination of sex differences between ‘fragile men’ and gifted women who opt out of successful careers. A valuable demonstration of how discounting biology during the last 40 years has done a disservice, especially to men.”

For ten years until 2012, Pinker served as the author of two weekly newspaper columns on neuroscience and behavioral economics for Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail:   “Problem Solving” and “The Business Brain.” She also produces monthly “radio documentaries” for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). For her writing, she has received awards from the Canadian Medical Association (2000), the Periodical Writing Association of Canada (2002, 2010), and the International Society for Intelligence Research (2014).

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.