The Oakland University Department of Psychology hosted a thought-provoking international and interdisciplinary conference in April that included leading scholars from around the world to address “Evolutionary Perspectives on Death.” The event was held at the historic Meadow Brook Hall on April 18.
The goal of the conference was to enrich the understanding of death and recognize the importance of and encourage engagement in interdisciplinary collaboration.
Keynote speaker for the conference was David Benatar, Professor and Head of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He gave a talk entitled “Is Your Death Bad for You?”
The conference featured remarks from Oakland University President Ora Pescovitz, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost James Lentini, and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Kevin Corcoran. Several engaging panel discussions with question and answer sessions and poster presentations from OU graduate students in psychology rounded out the agenda.
“This year’s conference topic drew a lot of interest and the ability to bring in a world-class thought-leader like Professor David Benatar really inspired a constructive dialogue,” said Todd K. Shackelford, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Chair of Oakland University’s Department of Psychology.
“The conference also gave us a great opportunity to showcase our department and highlight the work being done in our graduate programs to a national and international audience,” reports Shackelford’s colleague and conference co-host Virgil Zeigler-Hill, Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in psychology.
Dr. Shackelford was also featured in a segment of Education Today on the metro Detroit radio station WWJ-Newsradio 950AM discussing the keynote talk and conference.
This was the fifth conference in the Evolutionary Psychology Interdisciplinary Conference Series, which will continue every two years to address evolutionary perspectives on timely and important topics in the field of psychology. Prior conferences have included The Evolution of Violence, The Evolution of Sexuality, The Evolution of Morality and the Evolution of Psychopathology. Each of the prior conferences has resulted in academic volumes published by Springer Nature.
This year’s conference was supported by Oakland University’s Office of the President, Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Office of Research Administration, College of Arts and Sciences, Honors College, Center for Biomedical Research, Macomb County Outreach, and Graduation Education. In addition, the conference was supported by corporate partner Springer Nature. Other supporters included Michael R. and Christine M. Earl, Kanako Taku and William Whitson.
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| Graduate student Audrey Robeson with her poster, "Effects of crowds and enrichment on captive pig behavior." She coauthored the poster with Molly McGuire, Zoe Johnson-Ulrich, and Jennifer Vonk. | ||
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Psychology professor from the University of Texas at Austin, David Buss, Ph.D., was | ||
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| Conference organizers and speakers celebrated a successful sharing of ideas and insight at the 2018 conference "Evolutionary Perspectives on Death." | ||
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| Table features OU Psychology department team members who attended the conference. | ||
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| College of Arts and Sciences Dean Kevin Corcoran addresses the conference attendees with midday remarks on April 18, 2018.
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