Adam Gopnik
Adam Gopnik is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of Paris to the Moon, Through The Children’s Gate and Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln and Modern Life. Adam Gopnik often writes about the growth of children’s consciousness, the differences between civilizations and they way we come to learn them, and the dilemmas of modernity as they are expressed in the lives and literary styles of modern people. Along with his observations on modern life, Gopnik writes about family manners, in a genre...
Keith Sawyer, Ph.D.
Dr. Sawyer is an Associate Professor of Education, Psychology, and Business. He conducts research on creativity and collaboration. He focuses on how groups enhance individual creativity, and also how people work together to combine their distinct ideas into successful group creativity. A second aspect of his research is a focus on learning. He examines how conversation among learners can contribute to a deeper conceptual understanding of material. His topics of research include business innovation, organizational dynamics in work teams, children's play and preschool, artistic...
James Pennebaker Ph.D.
Most of Dr. Pennebaker’s current research deals with the nature of language and social processes. Beginning over 20 years ago, he discovered that if people were asked to write about emotional upheavals in their lives, their physical and mental health improved. This resulted in a separate research project that explored how words can both reflect and influence underlying feelings, thoughts, personality, and behavioral tendencies.
In the last few years, Dr. Pennebaker and his students have developed a text analysis program, LIWC, that has allowed them...