A Trinity College faculty member will share her expertise at a screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary My Octopus Teacher in Hartford.
Associate Professor of Psychology Elizabeth D. Casserly will present a talk about interspecies communication and non-human animal cognition as part of the “Science on Screen” series hosted by Real Arts Ways. The event will be held on Saturday, June 13, at the Connecticut Science Center at 3:00 p.m. Learn more here.
My Octopus Teacher is a 2020 Netflix documentary film directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed that chronicles a yearlong relationship that filmmaker Craig Foster forged with a wild octopus near South Africa.
Casserly, who has been a Trinity faculty member since 2013, conducts research focusing on human
cognition, particularly with respect to speech and communication, and has taught about diverse ways of understanding the mind for the last 10 years. “Minds are fascinating ‘black boxes,’ whether you’re talking about humans or other animals,” she said. “In cognitive science, the challenge is to investigate the mind scientifically, without relying on intuition. As a result, we’ve had to come up with ingenious methods to infer the thoughts and processes beneath the surface. Adapting and applying some of those methods for work with non-humans involves putting everything in their context, with respect to their goals and environment. It means we need to be even more clever!”
Casserly’s particular study of language has involved physics, engineering, formal linguistics, fieldwork on Scandinavian languages in the North Atlantic, computer science, psychology, and the speech and hearing sciences.
“I believe that it is only when we bring these diverse views together that we can hope to unpack the complexities of humanity’s cognitive underpinnings,” Casserly said in her faculty profile.
At Trinity, Casserly has an appointment in the Neuroscience Program, in addition to her position in the Psychology Department, and in 2020 she became the coordinator for the cognitive science minor, in which students can bring together courses from across the curriculum to create a rich scholarship surrounding the mind.
“I hope to inspire students—and colleagues—to see and appreciate connections across disparate specializations and scholarly work,” Casserly said.
This year’s “Science on Screen” season began with a talk by another Trinity faculty member—Susan A. Masino, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Applied Science—at an April 25 screening of the documentary film, Proforestation: Letting Forests Grow Old, in which she was featured.
The “Science on Screen” lineup also will include: Bringing Up Baby (Saturday, July 18), Point Break (Saturday, August 15), Agent of Happiness (Saturday, October 17), and Wall-E (Saturday, November 7). Each event includes a speaker who introduces current research or technological advances.
The June 13 event featuring Casserly’s talk begins at 3:00 p.m. at the Connecticut Science Center, located at 250 Columbus Boulevard in Hartford. Tickets and more information are available through Real Art Ways.
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