Photo of Dacher Keltner

Think Forum featuring Dacher Keltner

Photo of Dacher Keltner
Photo credit: Jigar Mehta

The next Think Forum event will feature Dacher Keltner, compassion researcher and psychology professor at the University of California at Berkeley, renowned for his research on the science of compassion and awe. Keltner is director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab, and serves as the faculty director of the Berkeley Greater Good Science Center. His research focuses on the biological and evolutionary origins of compassion, awe, love and beauty, as well as power, social class and inequality.

He is a leading scholar in the study of emotion, and served as a scientific consultant for Pixar’ss film Inside Out. Wired magazine has rated the podcasts of Keltner’s “Human Emotion” course as one of the five best academic podcasts in the country. Often quoted in the media, Keltner was recently voted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Presented as the F. Joseph Callahan Distinguished Lecture, Keltner’s talk will be held April 29 at 5 p.m. Keltner will discuss the movement toward more collaborative and compassionate models of power and what can be done to promote positive social change.

The virtual Think Forum will be presented live online. Registration is requested on the Think Forum website in order to obtain the streaming link.

Special opportunity for students

Prior to his keynote lecture on April 29, students will have the opportunity to engage in an intimate Zoom dialogue with Keltner. The student conversation will begin at 3:30 p.m. on April 29 and will be a 60-minute informal discussion shaped by student questions. To participate in this conversation, students are asked to RSVP on CampusGroups.