“Engaging the Public with Language Science ”
Laura Wager, Ph.D.
Professor, Ohio State University
Department of Psychology
Friday, September 15, 9:00–10:30 a.m. EDT
Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library
The field of language science has been immensely successful, contributing to improved technology, educational practices, health outcomes and a deeper understanding of the human mind. Nevertheless, the general public does not always understand what language scientists do and have achieved. In this talk, Laura Wagner will outline best practices from the field of informal science education for engaging with the public, with a focus on establishing credibility, and how credibility critically depends not only on conveying one’s expertise, but also on conveying one’s integrity and good will (Hendriks et al., 2015). She will also discuss the results from several studies of engagement activities in the Language Sciences Research Lab and show how they impacted the people we engage with as well as the students who conducted the activities.