Changing Behavior to Fight Racism and Bias

To change systemic inequalities in our society requires us not only to recognize the impact of racism and white toxicity, but also to work toward fundamental changes to dismantle harmful systems and work together for a different future. This virtual event will guide us toward recognizing the harm that racism causes to humanity, and points us to individual and collective solutions to this crisis.

In this virtual Stavros Niarchos Foundation Brain Insight Lecture Series event, we will hear two 15-minute talks from experts at Columbia University whose research focuses on recognizing and reducing social inequalities due to racism. Dr. Dana E. Crawford, clinical psychologist and Scholar-in-Residence at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute, will talk about how we must view anti-racism work as humanitarianism, impacting all of humanity with particularly prominent devastation levels in the United States. She will discuss how we can reduce the impact of racism and white toxicity, including through her internal processing model, “LET UP.” Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn, Associate Professor of Social Work at Columbia University, will speak about how the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent uprisings sparked by ongoing racial violence have exposed some of the deepest and most persistent inequalities in our society. Centering the critical importance of directly engaging anti-Black racism, Dr. Cogburn will invite us to not only evaluate how we correct harmful systems but to fundamentally expand and reimagine the possibilities of our collective futures.

Following the two talks, Dr. Ariel J. Mosley, postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University in the Columbia Social and Moral Cognition Lab, will then moderate a discussion with the speakers. Audience questions are welcomed, either submitted during registration or live during the event.

This talk is part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Brain Insight Lecture series, offered free to the public to enhance understanding of the biology of the mind and the complexity of human behavior. The lectures are hosted by Columbia’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute and supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.