Title: The Origins and Future of Language
Blurb: If you make a sound and nobody understands it, does it count as language? Are humans the only ones who use language? Are Emojis language? Come hear a scientific panel discuss and debate the biological basis of language, ways it can go wrong, and where language may be headed in the future.
Dr. Dan Vahaba is a Mellon visiting assistant professor at Smith College. His research focuses on the role of hormones in nonhuman animal communication. For more information, please check out the links below.
Webpage: https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/dan-vahaba
Twitter: https://twitter.com/grey_smatter?lang=en
Dr. Maggie Ugolini got her PhD at UMass Amherst with her research focusing on how the brain responses to listening to language and learning new words in children. She is currently a battlespace acoustics researcher at Ball Aerospace.
Dr. Adrian Staub is a professor at UMass Amherst and is the director of the UMass Eyetracking lab. His research focuses on the reasoning involved in our language comprehension. For more information, please check out the links below.
Webpage: https://www.pbs.umass.edu/people/adrian-staub
Eyetracking lab: https://blogs.umass.edu/eyelab/
If you were hoping to get an earful of this cafe, you don’t need to have your ear to the ground, it’s right below! Please enjoy!
Life Science Cafe - Cafe de Ciencias Biologicas 