Martha Farah to Direct New Neuroscience Program
Photo credit: Candace diCarlo
This fall, the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Neuroscience and Society is partnering with Penn Arts and Sciences to offer a first-of-its-kind graduate certificate program that aims to educate non-scientists about the workings of the brain: the Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience program, or SCAN. For students from a variety of Penn graduate programs, SCAN provides insight into neuroscience’s relationship to a range of disciplines.
Martha Farah, the Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the Natural Sciences in the Department of Psychology and the director of the Center for Neuroscience and Society, is heading the program.
“Many different fields are now incorporating the ideas and methods of neuroscience, from law and education to social sciences and even humanities,” Farah says. “Our aim is to empower graduate students in these areas to be leaders in this new interdisciplinary trend. We will equip them with a critical understanding of what neuroscience can and can’t do and the know-how to undertake their own good, rigorous, interdisciplinary work.”
All participants will take two core classes that will introduce them to the foundations of neuroscience, with an emphasis on the neuroscience of human thought, feeling, and action. The other two courses will be chosen from advanced classes in neuroscience, courses on the impact of neuroscience on society, and “bridging” courses set in the student’s own discipline, be it law, business, education, or another field.
Fall/Winter 2013
Related Stories
Omnia Podcast: Democracy and Decision 2024 Episode Four (Audio)
Political Science Professor Marc Meredith and PORES Executive Director Stephanie Perry talk about why voting laws are so complicated, what has changed since the last election, voter turnout, mail-in ballots, poll workers, and why some races take longer to call than others.
Politics in Perspective
A first-year seminar taught by Michele Margolis, an associate professor of political science, applies the lessons of political science to a consequential election—and leans into difficult conversations.
We All Can Just Get Along
In a Q&A, Professor of Political Science Matthew Levendusky explains the results of a megastudy he worked on with dozens of collaborators: In a nutshell, they found there are many ways to significantly reduce partisan animosity.