Sesquicentennial Academic Symposium to Focus On Relationship Between Mind And Body

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The relationship between consciousness and the body will be the focus of "Does the Body Matter?," a sesquicentennial academic symposium on frontiers of knowledge in nature, society and culture to be held from 8:15 a.m to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4, in Slee Concert Hall on the North Campus.

The symposium will bring together internationally known scholars, including Nobel laureate Gerald Edelman, to discuss the mind-body topic from diverse disciplines, including neuroscience, genetics, philosophy, computer science and cultural studies. It will be free and open to the public.

James Bono, associate professor of history and medicine, explained that western culture has long assumed that there is a duality between the mind and the body, and that the mind is superior.

However, new perspectives on the physical properties of the brain raise the possibility that consciousness is closely interrelated with the body. Research into computers and artificial intelligence also raises questions about the nature of the mind. These issues affect how people view themselves in politics, literature and culture.

"The appeal of this topic is that it crosses so many of the disciplines of the arts and sciences," said Charles Stinger, associate dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and professor of history. "People in computer science or biology or literary and film studies will find the whole matter of interest.

"In addition, it's a provocative subject that will stimulate considerable discussion and debate," said Stenger, chair of the Sesquicentennial University-Wide Programs Committee.

Edelman received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1972 for his research on antibodies. He also has made significant research contributions in the fields of biophysics, protein chemistry, cell biology and neurobiology.

He has written three books, Neural Darwinism, The Remembered Present, and Bright Air, Brilliant Fire, outlining a theory called neuronal group selection to explain the development and organization of higher brain functions.

Edelman is the director of the Neurosciences Institute and the president of the Neurosciences Research Foundation. He also is chairman of the department of neurobiology at the Scripps Research Institute.

-- N. Katherine Hayles, a professor of English at the University of California at Los Angeles, writes about the bodily basis of knowing in relation to cultural contexts and changing technologies. Her published works include Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science.

-- Bruno Latour, a major figure in the world of science studies, is a professor at the Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines in Paris. His numerous books include Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts and We Have Never Been Modern.

-- Richard Lewontin is Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and professor of biology at Harvard University. He is the author of Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature and Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA, and is also a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books.

-- Margaret Lock, a medical anthropologist, is a professor in the Departments of Anthropology and of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University. She is the author of East Asian Medicine in Urban Japan: Varieties of Medical Experience and Encounters with Aging: Mythologies of Menopause in Japan and North America.

Distinguished Service Professor Alan J. Drinnan, of UB's School of Dental Medicine, will moderate two panel discussions with UB faculty members.

The morning session will include UB faculty members Michael A. Bozarth, associate professor of psychology; Mark Gottdiener, professor and chair in the Department of Sociology; Carolyn W. Korsmeyer, associate professor of philosophy; Alan H. Lockwood, professor of neurology; William J. Rapaport, associate professor of computer science; Jim Swan, associate professor of English; and Barbara H. Tedlock, professor of anthropology.

In the afternoon session, the faculty commentators will be: Michael S. Alvard, assistant professor of anthropology; James J. Bono, associate professor of history and medicine; John T. Kearns, professor and chair in the Department of Philosophy; Thomas E. Keirstead, assistant professor of history; Sheila Lloyd, assistant professor of English; Christopher A. Loretz, associate professor of biological sciences; and Donald K. Pollock, associate professor of anthropology.