This presentation will identify faulty cognitive schemas that are responsible for unjust social policies, institutions, and systems and propose a new pedagogical and critical strategy, based on research in cognitive science and certain features of protest novels, for advancing social justice by correcting these deficient cognitive schemas.
Mark Bracher's teaching and research center on the question of how literary study in particular and education in general can help students become more fulfilled individuals and more productive and socially responsible members of society. More specifically, by drawing on psychoanalytic theory, social psychology, and cognitive science, Bracher works to formulate educational and other cultural strategies for reducing social injustice, including not only racism, colonialism, sexism, and homophobia but also the obscene and growing disparities in wealth and well being within both American society and the world at large. His research investigates, and his teaching attempts to implement, the development of capacities and habits of perception, analysis, reflection, and feeling that are necessary for recognizing social injustice, understanding its root causes, formulating effective interventions to counter it, and being motivated to take action against it. More information about Dr. Bracher can be found here.
This event is co-sponsored by L.A.S.E.R.
