Franz Boas: In Praise of Open Minds
will be published by Yale University Press on 13 May 2025
The Ceiling Outside: The Science and Experience of the Disrupted Mind:
click here to go to the book page, with links to articles, online events, and reviews.
Online conversations & interviews also available below (scroll down).
NEWS
From January 2025, I will be Research Associate at the Florence School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute, funded through a Horizon project on the scaling of democratic innovation to develop a program on Emotions In Politics (EIP).
PAST NEWS ITEMS
From September 2023 until July 2024, I was a Visiting Fellow at the Florence School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute, as part of the Democratic Odyssey Project of the EUI-STG Democracy Forum, set within the STG Transnational Democracy Programme. In September 2022, I became a Visiting Fellow in the Department of History at the European University Institute in Florence.
From October 3rd to 13th, 2022, I was a writer-in-residence at the John J. Reilly Center at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
In 2021-22, I was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at Munich’s Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, as part of the Research Group Persuading under Uncertainty: Challenges and Norms of Science Communication, led by Ophelia Deroy.
In April 2021, I became an Honorary Fellow of the Center for the Politics of Feelings, set up and directed by Manos Tsakiris.
In November 2020, I became an Associate Fellow of the Warburg Institute, my alma mater.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS / SEMINARS / WORKSHOPS
ONLINE INTERVIEWS & CONVERSATIONS
about The Ceiling Outside
Watch a conversation at the American Library in Paris with journalist and writer Rachel Donadio, 14 March 2023.
Watch a conversation with Lisa Appignanesi at Jewish Book Week, London, 27 February 2023
Watch a talk at the Richardson Seminar, Weill Cornell Medicine DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry, New York, 16 November 2022.
Watch a conversation with Lisa Appignanesi at the Freud Museum, London, 25 October 2022.
Listen to a conversation with SISSA (Trieste) physicist Roberto Trotta (in Italian), on the Sidecar Podcast, 26 September 2022.
Read an interview with Ben Upton at the Times Higher Education (paywalled), 15 September 2022.
Watch a conversation with Ophelia Deroy, online at The Philosopher, 7 June 2022.
Watch a conversation with journalist Shayla Love, online at the Harvard Bookstore, 27 May 2022.
Watch or Listen to an interview with Michael Shermer on The Michael Shermer Show “The Skeptic”, 13 May 2022.
Read an interview with Joe Humphreys in The Irish Times: “Can Someone with Dementia Access a Deeper Kind of Wisdom?”, 12 May 2022.
Listen to an interview with The Takeaway, WNYC (US): “Author Noga Arikha Explores Memory and Identity”, aired 11 May 2022.
Read or Listen to “Five Key Insights” from the book on the Next Big Ideas Club, 10 May 2022.
Watch a conversation with Antonio Damasio, online at the HowTo Academy, 3 may 2022.
Watch a conversation with Katerina Fotopoulou, online at the Royal Institution, 26 April 2022.
Listen to the RSA’s “Bridges to the Future” podcast with Matthew Taylor: “Mental Illness and Identity”, 19 April 2022.
REVIEWS OF THE CEILING OUTSIDE: Kirkus review - Julian Baggini in The Wall Street Journal - Claire Messud in Harper’s - Joe Humphreys in The Irish Times - Lauren Christensen in The New York Times - Kathryn Tabb in American Scholar - Salley Vickers in The Literary Review - Suparna Choudhury in The TLS.
PAST EVENTS
Participant at workshop on Nonverbal Counterspeech: Exploring Alternative Responses to Hate Speech, organised by Jimena Zapata, Munich: LMU, CVBE Lab of Ophelia Deroy, 12-13 September 2024: “Emotions In Politics”.
Participant at Colloque de Cerisy, France, on L'enfance de demain entre le vivant et le virtuel, organised by Maya Gratier, Louise Goyet, Bahia Guellai, Valeria Lumbroso, 20-24 June 2024: “The sense of self: the rediscovery of the body in the post-Cartesian age”.
Participant at “Adriatica 2024” summer school on “Body-Brain-Environment Interactions and Well-being”, Università degli Studi 'G. d'Annunzio' Chieti-Pescara, 3-7 June 2024: “Mapping the Territory”, concluding talk.
Panelist at Abu Dhabi Culture Summit, 3-5 March 2024: “Objects, Museums and the Mind: Engaging with our Material World”, with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Maral Jule Bedoyan, chaired by Nathalie Bondil.
“Emotions in Politics”, presentation of project at School of Transnational Governance Research Working Group, 27 February 2024.
A conversation with Garrick Jones on The Curious Advantage Podcast: “Don’t Be Afraid of Feelings”, 7 February 2024 (recorded 16 November 2023). Listen here.
Panelist with Carolyn Kandusi on “Mastering the Art and Science of Human-Centered Policy Influencing”, moderated by Apiwe Hotele, School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute, 25 October 2023.
A talk as panelist at a workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Democracy: Challenges and Avenues of Amalgamation, at the European University Institute, School of Transnational Governance, Florence, 23-24 May 2023: “Redefining human nature: AI, brains and bodies”.
A conversation about The Ceiling Outside at the Institute of Psychoanalysis, with psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Muzaffar Husain, chaired by psychologist and psychoanalyst Stephen Blumenthal, London, 15 March 2023.
A conversation about The Ceiling Outside at the American Library with journalist and writer Rachel Donadio, Paris, 14 March 2023.
Talk at the History of the Human Mind Series, European University Institute, History Department: “How far down does top-down go? Franz Boas between psychology and anthropology”, Florence, 1 March 2023.
Conversation with Lisa Appignanesi, Jewish Book Week, London (online), 27 February 2023.
A talk at the Richardson Seminar, Weill Cornell Medicine DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry, New York, 16 November 2022.
Talk about The Ceiling Outside at the Women’s International Network, Florence, 9 November 2022.
A conversation with Lewis Lapham about The Ceiling Outside, hosted by Lapham’s Quarterly, New York City, 20 October 2022.
Book party and reading for The Ceiling Outside, Tribeca, NYC, 18 October 2022.
A conversation with Barak Gaster about The Ceiling Outside, “Living with an ageing mind: Personal, philosophical and practical considerations”, Computational Neuroscience Center, University of Washington, Seattle, 14 October 2022.
Twelve events - class visits, book readings, conversations - around The Ceiling Outside as a writer-in-residence at the Reilly Center, Notre Dame University, Indiana, 4-13 October 2022.
Keynote talk at Selfridges Group Fesival on Mapping the Future: “To imagine and create new models and systems, do we first need to change how we see and think?”, London, 6 September 2022.
“Language, Science, Story”, talk given at the workshop organised by Ophelia Deroy, (No) more stories: the new challenges of science communication, as part of the Fellowship Persuading under Uncertainty: Challenges and Norms of Science Communication, Center for Advanced Studies, Munich, 12 July 2022.
“Cultures of Emotion”, paper given at the symposium “The Politics of Feelings: From Neuroscience to Political Science”, 24 June, at the conference The Affective Turn in Cognitive Science, Parma, 22-24 June 2022.
Co-organizer with Alessandro Treves and participant in Mind the Gap: How We Build, Perceive, Experience, and Share Spaces, an informal workshop at SISSA, Trieste, 20-22 June 2022.
Conversation with Vittorio Gallese about The Ceiling Outside, live (not recorded) at the British Institute Sotto, Florence, 25 May 2022.
Book launch and reading for The Ceiling Outside, Daunt Bookshop Hampstead, London, 4 May 2022.
Workshop on “Science writing for the general public”, to members of Ophélia Deroy’s Cognition, Values, Behaviour (CVBE) lab at the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS), as part of the Persuading under Uncertainty: Challenges and Norms of Science Communication research group, Munich, 30 November 2021.
“How we feel: cultural variations on a natural theme", at the “AboutFace: Emotions, History and the Body” seminar, on the invitation of About Face project leader Fay Bound Alberti, York University, 15 November 2021, and at Fatima Felisberti’s Emotion, Cognition and Behaviour lab, Kingston University, 24 November 2021.
“The ethics and aesthetics of natural wine”, talk at workshop on the philosophy of wine: Experts, Markets and Crowds: Taste Under the Influence, convened by Ophélia Deroy and Gloria Origgi, Palermo, 4-5 November 2021.
“Le toucher, l’espace péripersonnel et la connaissance de l’absence”, Nuit de la Philosophie organised by Mériam Korichi, UNESCO, Paris, 17 September 2021.
Intimacy, Peripersonal Space, and the Boundaries of the Self in the Digital Age, Warburg Institute. Webinar chaired by myself and Manos Tsakiris. Speakers: Frédérique de Vignemont, Vittorio Gallese, Gloria Origgi, Andrea Serino. Discussants: Anna Ciaunica, Katerina Fotopoulou, Mériam Korichi, Giulia Oskian, 8 June 2021
“The Self as Other: Franz Boas Between Psychology and Anthropology”, Work-in-Progress Seminar, Warburg Institute, 3 March 2021
“Where Does It Start: an historical and anthropological perspective on cultures, selves, and disciplines”: paper at conference in Porto, Portugal, on Trends in Interdisciplinary Studies: Fragmentation of Cognition, 24-26 October 2019
“The self in health and illness: stories and histories from the neurological clinic and the neuroscientific front”, talk at Educating the Whole Physician, the inaugural conference of a new program in “Medicine and the Liberal Arts” at the University of Notre Dame, convened by Robert Goulding, 4-6 April, 2019
Dissecting the Visceral Body, Across Time and Disciplines, discussion chair at workshop organised by Manos Tsakiris and Fay Bound Alberti at the Warburg Institute, London, 1 March 2019
Mind and Body Across Time and Disciplines, discussant at workshop organized by Ohad Nachtomy at the Institut des Etudes Avancées, Paris, 23-24 January 2019
"Sous la peau”, talk at the Nuit de la philosophie, UNESCO, Paris, 16 November 2018
The Three Souls: Interdisciplinary conference convened along with Justin E. H. Smith, under the aegis of Paris 7/Sphere, at the Columbia University Global Center at Reid Hall, Paris, 5-6 October 2018. View a summary here.
Guest on Signes des Temps, a program on France Culture hosted by writer Marc Weitzmann, to discuss #MeToo, 30 September 2018.
Equilibre, Humeurs, Harmonie: Talk at XXIVèmes Assises Nationales de la Fédération Nationale des Enseignants du Yoga, Troyes, May 2017
Professional Vices in Modern Medicine: Workshop convened by philosopher Quassim Cassam, Warwick University, February 2017
Humours in the Age of Neuroscience: Presentation to residents at Neurology Department (guest of Dr. Anand Viswanathan), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, December 2015
Histoires de coeur: Humeurs, esprit et cerveau de la Grèce antique à la médecine moderne: Presentation to residents at Cardiology Department (guest of Dr. Stéphane Manzo-Silberman), Hôpital Lariboisière, Paris, 2015
Arts, Emotions, and Liberal Arts: A talk at the History & Theory Department of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel, 25 December 2013.
Passions and Tempers: A discussion with Giovanni Frazzetto at SoHo House Berlin, 28 June 2013
Humoural Bodies and Balanced Minds: Keynote lecture at conference Situating Mental Illness: Between Scientific Certainty and Personal Narrative, Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICI), Berlin, 28-29 April 2011
A New Republic of Letters? Talk at conference on Global Humanities convened by Gloria Origgi, Italian Cultural Institute, New York, 27 May 2010
The New Biology and the Self: Panelist along with Steven Pinker and Melvin Konner. Tufts Center for the Humanities, Boston, MA, 5 November 2009. Listen here
Humours in the Age of Neuroscience: Talk at Tufts Center for the Humanities, Boston, MA, 4 November 2009
Passions and Tempers: Talks@Google, Google Campus, Mountain View, CA, 2 April 2009
Humoural Passions and Patient Care: Talk at Institute for the History of Psychiatry (Department of Psychiatry), Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York City, 15 October 2008
Guest of Lewis Lapham on “The World in Time” to speak about Passions and Tempers, Bloomberg Radio, broadcast 7 July 2008
Wine, Body, Soul: Talk at 3rd International Conference on the Philosophy of Wine, University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo (Piemonte, Italy), 30-31 May 2008
Humeurs, Esprits, Cerveau: Seminar at NaSH group, Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale, Paris, 5 May 2008
Humours in the age of neuroscience: “Science and Society Forum Lecture”, EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory), Monterotondo (Rome), 21 March 2008
Guest of Melvyn Bragg on In Our Time: The Four Humours, BBC Radio 4, broadcast live on 20 December 2007
Just Life in a Nutshell: Humours as Common Sense: Talk at symposium convened along with Gloria Origgi on “Folk Epistemologies”, Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University, New York, 26 October 2007
On Secularism: An online conference convened along with Gloria Origgi and for Italian journal Micromega, 2007
Text-e: An online conference about the impact of Internet on texts, conceived by and convened along with Gloria Origgi, under the aegis of the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2001-2002