March 31, 2009

Cognitive Literary Studies Center focuses on 200th Darwin anniversary

Merlin Donald, professor of cognitive science at Case Western Reserve University, will present "What We Were, What We Are Becoming: Cognitive Evolution." The talk, which is free and open to the public, is 5 p.m. in the Krannert Auditorium.

Donald, a cognitive neuroscientist with a background in philosophy, is author of "Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition," and "A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness."

The event is sponsored by Purdue's Center for Cognitive Literary Studies, which is housed in the College of Liberal Arts. The center promotes and develops research that explores an empirical understanding of the mind as found in psychology, biology, neuroscience and information theory, but also its theoretical development in philosophy and its representation in literature.

The event also is co-sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Department of Psychological Sciences, Department of Anthropology and the Comparative Literature Studies program.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Paula Leverage, assistant professor of French and Medieval Studies and director of the Center for Cognitive Literary Studies, 765-494-3828, leverage@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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