Dr. Susan T. Fiske

Dr. Susan T. Fiske, Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology at Princeton University and a noted specialist in the areas of discrimination and prejudice reduction, will deliver the inaugural Marvin W. Goldstein Prejudice Reduction Lecture on Wednesday, November 7, at 8 p.m. in Rider University’s Bart Luedeke Center Theater.

The lecture, “Perils of Prejudice: Universal Biases in Mind, Brain, & Culture,” is free and open to the public. This endowed lecture series was established by the Rider University Psychology Department in recognition of Goldstein’s 38 years of dedicated and distinguished service as a member of the psychology department and for his contribution as past director of The Julius and Dorothy Koppelman Holocaust/Genocide Resource Center.

“Creating this series is a most fitting way to honor Marvin and his work at Rider and in the local community,” said Dr. Anne Law, chair of the department of psychology. “As the driving force behind the resource center and its many workshops, he has sought to foster respect, understanding and a strong sense of community. Fiske’s talk regarding the pressing contemporary concerns about prejudice and prejudice reduction will provide powerful messages to our campus community and beyond. There is a public part of intellectual life that compels academicians to seek solutions to such complicated issues.”

Fiske has written more than 200 articles and chapters, and has edited several books and special issues of journals in the field of psychology, notably as an editor for Annual Review of Psychology and the Handbook of Social Psychology. Currently, she investigates emotional prejudices such as pity, contempt, envy and pride, at cultural, interpersonal and neural levels. Her expert testimony in discrimination cases was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1989 landmark decision on gender bias. In 1998, she also testified before President Clinton’s Race Initiative Advisory Board, and from 2001 to 2003, she co-authored a National Academy of Science report on Methods for Measuring Discrimination.

Intrigued by the root causes of bias, Fiske published an article in the journal Science in which she explains how ordinary people are capable of torturing enemy prisoners through processes of prejudice and social influence. Her work garnered national attention. In 1991, she won the American Psychological Association’s Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest for anti-discrimination testimony. Over the years, she has served as president of the American Psychological Society and as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

For Goldstein, the endowed lecture series is an important way to keep the dialogue of prejudice reduction in the forefront of everyone’s minds. “I am deeply touched that my work at Rider will live on this way,” said Goldstein. “To have Dr. Fiske, one of the top researchers in her area, deliver the inaugural lecture is quite an honor.”

Contributions to the endowment are welcome. Checks may be made payable to the Marvin W. Goldstein Prejudice Reduction Lecture Series, and sent to the attention of Pat Witkowski, Office of University Advancement, Moore Library, 2083 Lawrenceville Road, Lawrenceville, NJ, 08648.

For more information about the lecture series, call Dr. Wendy Heath, lecture series coordinator, at 609-895-5425.

 

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