Speaker: Cordelia Fine
Senior Research Fellow in Psychological Sciences and Associate Professor
University of Melbourne
Date: Monday, February 18, 2013
Time: 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Location: 309 Sewall Hall
Abstract: This talk will chart the problematic journey of ‘facts’ about sex differences in the brain: from their production in the laboratory, to popular (mis)representation, to lay-beliefs about gender and their corresponding psychological effects. Feminist critics have recently argued that current use of the new technology of functional neuroimaging in sex differences research follows a long tradition of ‘neurosexism’: neuroscientific research or claims that reinforce traditional gender stereotypes and roles in ways that are not scientifically justified. Having argued for the validity of such concerns within the functional neuroimaging literature, I review evidence that such claims (especially when exaggerated by popular commentators), have scope to sustain the very sex differences they seek to explain via their effects on social attitudes and behaviors.
Web: HRC
Sponsors: This talk is generously cosponsored by the Departments of Psychology, Philosophy, and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.