“Social Justice and Reconciliation,” Saturday, Jan. 27, 9:30–11:30 a.m.; facilitated by Frank Alexander, professor of law

What is the subject of this panel?
We will examine the wide disparities in economic and cultural resources (including access to the legal system) that exist across the socioeconomic spectrum, and the manner in which discrete minorities bear the brunt of these inequalities.

The goals of this panel are to inform and educate the audience about social inequalities and to evaluate forms of advocacy in addressing them. We will also inquire into the possibilities of reconciliation in the face of these radical social inequalities. One of the issues we’re going to focus on is housing, and we have some expert panelists on the topic.

Who will be speaking?
Joseph Lowery, former president and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will give the main address, which he has titled “All God’s Children Got Shoes.”

Dr. Lowery has been a civil rights leader in the United States and led protests against firms doing business in South Africa during the apartheid era. The respondents will be Eva Davis, president of the East Lake Residents Association, and Emory’s Michael Giles, White Professor of Political Science.

Ms. Davis has been instrumental in drawing national attention to the issue of revitalizing public housing. And, of course, Professor Giles, who was senior advisor for research and evaluation for The Atlanta Project, has special expertise about the intersections of urban problems and politics.

What do you hope audience members—specifically members of the Emory community—might gain from this panel?
Reconciliation poses the possibility of discovering the other person, the other side, in the chasms that divide us. I hope the panel will serve as a challenge to academic life at Emory to broaden our definition and understanding of the society in which we live.

“Examining the Cognitive Foundations of the Conflicts between Religion and Science,” Saturday, Jan. 27, 9:30–11:30 a.m.; facilitated by Robert McCauley, professor of philosophy

This panel focuses on a topic that was addressed in Professor Wayne Booth’s lecture last month—reconciling science and religion—but through a new approach, namely taking into account some of the findings of cognitive science. Can you say a bit about that?
We hope to offer another tool that will be useful in the conversation about science and religion. Cognitive science is a multidisciplinary effort that has arisen over the past three decades to study the mind scientifically. It includes the work of scholars in psychology, anthropology, linguistics, computer science, philosophy and neuroscience. It gives us an opportunity to ask questions about human nature as we inquire about which of the two—science or religion—seems to be more deeply rooted in our natural cognitive predispositions.

Who will be the panelists?
Professor of Psychology Lawrence Barsalou will moderate; he is leading an effort to establish a cognitive science program in the graduate school. I will give the main address, which will be followed by responses from Bradd Shore, professor of anthropology, and Gary Laderman, associate professor of religion.

Professor Shore has embarked on a new project funded by the Sloan Foundation, the Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life, that will contribute to his view on the subject. In addition to his work on death in American culture, Professor Laderman has been active in faculty discussion groups addressing issues of, for example, science and medicine.

Why is the issue of the conflicts between science and religion important, and why is it important to Emory?
This is one of the questions at the heart of our modern Western world and has been in the air for hundreds of years—since Galileo, through Darwin and up to our current discussions of science and technology.

Faculty and students at Emory have been studying the issue for some time now, which is especially important to us because we have prominent schools in the health sciences in addition to our strengths in religious studies. Emory is in a unique position to carry on this conversation, and to make it constructive.