{"id":1755,"date":"2019-01-31T13:51:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T18:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2021-08-04T16:58:40","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T20:58:40","slug":"popular-author-and-harvard-prof-steven-pinker-comes-home-to-dawson-for-social-science-week-feb-6-to-celebrate-50th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/popular-author-and-harvard-prof-steven-pinker-comes-home-to-dawson-for-social-science-week-feb-6-to-celebrate-50th\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular author and Harvard Prof. Steven Pinker comes home to Dawson for Social Science Week Feb. 6 to celebrate 50th"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up on Dawson\u2019s Connect page<\/a> to view a complete video of his Dawson lecture.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of Time <\/em>magazine\u2019s \u201c100 Most Influential People in the World Today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Author of Bill Gates\u2019 favourite book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress <\/em>(Viking 2018).<\/p>\n

Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. And graduate of Dawson College, Social Science, 1973. Steven Pinker is certainly among the most famous alumni of the first 50 years of Dawson.<\/p>\n

Prof. Pinker\u2019s 50th<\/sup>anniversary gift to Dawson is a talk on Feb. 6 during Social Science Week.<\/p>\n

Pinker believes that our world is actually improving and he will share his hope with us during his talk. It will include some of the ideas and discoveries he’s written about in the 46 years since leaving Dawson, including the nature of language, how the mind works, the psychology and history of violence, and the reality of human progress. Of course, he will also reminisce about his time at Dawson, 1971-\u201973.<\/p>\n

Social Science teachers Vivien Watson and Nancy Rebelo, organizers of Social Science Week, invited Dr. Pinker to share his knowledge and meet Dawson students, faculty, staff and special guests.<\/p>\n

One of the special guests is retired Psychology teacher Lillian Fox, whom he especially wished to invite. \u201cHe was not in my class, but I remember him as a very bright student and I remember having a conversation with him about how language acquisition would be an interesting field of study,\u201d Lillian recalled.<\/p>\n

In those early days of Dawson, it was common for students and faculty to hang out. \u201cThe faculty was young,\u201d said Catherine Fichten, a Psychology teacher and former head of the department when Prof. Pinker was a student. \u201cI was 22 and the students were 17-18,\u201d she said. \u201cMy office was hangout central. Lots of really bright students were floating around then. We would have amazing conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe access to teachers would have helped cultivate his interest in psychology, but he was our star student!\u201d Catherine affirmed. \u201cI remember Steven as being thoroughly nice, even though he was smart as a whip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retired Dawson psychology teacher Gary Clemence taught Prof. Pinker. \u201cWhen Steven completed his class, I remember Gary told me: \u2018Now that he\u2019s finished my course, he can teach it.\u2019 I had never heard a teacher say that before and have never heard anyone say it after,\u201d Catherine said.<\/p>\n

The student-focused lecture on Feb. 6 will be videotaped in order to give a chance to our former students, staff and friends of the College to view it in its entirety. To get access to the video link, please sign up on our Connect page<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Please share this with your contacts who are connected to Dawson and would like to view this video of Steven Pinker\u2019s talk and reconnect during our 50th<\/sup>anniversary year to learn about special events, news and campaigns. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sign up on Dawson\u2019s Connect page to view a complete video of his Dawson lecture. One of Time magazine\u2019s \u201c100 Most Influential People in the World Today.\u201d Author of Bill Gates\u2019 favourite book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (Viking 2018). Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. And graduate of Dawson…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":1756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1757,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions\/1757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}