The CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGION AT UCLA

In Its “FUTURE OF RELIGION” Series

Invites you to a two-day conference on the theme:

“MIMETIC THEORY and NEUROSCIENCE”

Featuring the author of this famous theory of human behavior,

Prof. RENÉ GIRARD of Stanford University

and
Prof. ANTONIO DAMASIO, distinguished neuroscientist at
the University of Southern California.

        The conference will be focused on the latest developments in Girard’s “mimetic theory,” including a high-powered symposium dealing with cutting-edge research on the relation of Girard’s theory to recent breakthroughs in neuroscience and developmental psychology. On the first day, Tuesday January 15, Prof. Girard will speak at 7:30PM, and his long-time collaborator Dr. Robert Hamerton-Kelly also from Stanford, will speak that afternoon at 4:00. 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15 in the PUBLIC POLICY BUILDING, ROOM 1246:

4:00-5:45: Lecture by Dr. Hamerton-Kelly titled “Religion as a Theory of Human Behavior”

7:30-9:00: Lecture by Prof. Girard titled “Religion and Apocalypse”

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16^TH, 3:00PM – 6:00PM: Panel discussion in ROYCE HALL, ROOM 314.

Theme: “Mimetic Theory and Neuroscience”

The panelists are:      

René Girard  (Professor Emeritus, Stanford University, Honorary Chair of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion and elected member of the Academie française, the highest rank for French intellectuals)

Antonio Damasio (Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Neurology at USC and Director of the USC College Brain and Creativity Institute)

Jean-Pierre Dupuy (Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the École Polytechnique, Paris and the Director of C.R.E.A. (Centre de Recherche en Épistémologie Appliquée), which he founded in 1982. At Stanford University, he is a researcher at the Center for Study of Language and Information (C.S.L.I.)

Scott Garrels (Assistant Research Professor, Travis Research Institute, Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary)

Marco Iacoboni (Associate Professor, Neuropsychiatric Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine UCLA and Director, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab of the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center) (not yet confirmed)

Dr. Hamerton-Kelly (President of “Imitatio Inc.-Integrating the Human Sciences”) will introduce the panel and Dr. William Hurlbut (Consulting Professor, The Neuroscience Institute at Stanford, Stanford University Medical Center, and the President’s Council on Bioethics) will moderate.

Parking in Structure #2 at Westholme off Hilgard. A fee of $8.00 is charged.

This conference is FREE and open to the public.