PLACE lectures slated for today and Monday
Texas A&M UniversityTexarkana will hold Program for Learning and Community Engagement lectures today and Monday.
Dr. Del Doughty, dean of the College of Arts, Sciences and Education, will present “Comic Improv: The Migration of an Idea” at 11 a.m. today in University Center 326 on the A&M-Texarkana campus at 7101 University Ave., Texarkana, Texas.
In his lecture, Doughty will trace the history of improvisation comedy.
“Improv began among social workers and immigrant children in turn-of-the-20th-century Chicago; today, improv is best known as a unique form of comedic theater that produces much of our entertainment talent—everyone from John Belushi and Chris Farley to Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert,” Doughty said. “It has applications in organizational leadership and peak performance studies, and now, thanks to things like functional MRI machines, scientists are beginning to study what happens in the brain when people improvise. I’ll discuss all of that in the lecture and we’ll also play a few improv games to get the feel of the art form.”
On Monday at 12 p.m., Hendrix College psychology professor Dr. Lindsay Kennedy will present “Can You Carry Social Support in Your Back Pocket? The Relationship Between Cellphones and Pain Experiences” in University Center 217. The event is also sponsored by the A&MTexarkana Psychology Club and the College of Arts, Sciences and Education.
Kennedy will focus on answering the question: “Cellphones are increasingly central to our social relationships, but can they help us with social pain?”
“The simple presence of our cellphones may be a source of social support,” Kennedy said. “This talk will present recent data showing that the mere presence (vs. absence) of our cell phones can help us with the pain caused by social exclusion.”
She is the Nancy and Craig Wood Odyssey Associate Professor of Psychology at Hendrix College. She holds a doctor of philosophy degree from the University of North Carolina and her research interests include general and health-related judgment and decision making; behavioral economics; and the interplay between emotions and cognition, especially in the decision-making process.