FOR MORE INFORMATION:
DR. KRYS STRAND, director, Neuroscience Program associate professor, Biology
FIFTH ANNUAL NORNES LECTURESHIP IN NEUROSCIENCE
EXPLORES SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
The Neuroscience program at Concordia announces the 2020 Nornes Lectureship in Neuroscience featuring Dr. Judith Kroll via Zoom explaining how “Learning and Using Two Languages May Change Your Mind and Brain.” The lecture will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 19, in the Centrum, Knutson Campus Center. A dessert reception featuring cultural and musical performances hosted by the department of World Languages and Cultures will follow. The event is free and open to the public.
Recently cognitive and language scientists have come to see that the use of two or more languages provides a unique lens to examine the neural plasticity engaged by language experience. Kroll will discuss bilingualism providing a tool for examining aspects of the cognitive and neural architecture that are otherwise obscured by the skill associated with native language performance in monolingual speakers. She’ll also consider the consequences that bilingualism holds more generally for cognition and learning.
Kroll is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Language Science at the University of California, Irvine and co-founder of Women in Cognitive Science.
The Nornes Lectureship in Neuroscience was the vision of Dr. Howard O. Nornes for the benefit of Concordia students and faculty, and the broader community. Nornes obtained a doctorate in neuroscience from Purdue University and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Lund, Sweden, and the Max Planck Institute, Göttingen, Germany. He is professor emeritus of neuroscience at Colorado State University where he continues to teach courses in neuroplasticity of the adult brain. His major research interest was the development and regeneration of the nervous system.
The Lectureship was created through generous gifts from the Howard ’53 and Sonia (Nelsen) ’58 Nornes, and the LaVern ’54 and Lois (Austin) ’56 Nornes families.
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