Current Year Events
Benne Center for Religion & Society
2016-2017
Faith and Learning Lecture/Dinners for Faculty and Administrators
November 15, 2016 - Paul Hinlicky
February 21, 2017 - Bob Benne
Public Events
September 20, 2016 - Crumley Lecture, Rosalind Picard, Sc.D., Professor and Director of the Affective Computing Research Group at MIT
"Emotion Tech"
Rosalind Picard founded the field of Affective Computing. An active inventor, she has multiple patents to help people with autism, epilepsy, depression, PTSD, sleep, stress, dementia, health behavior change, machine learning, and human-computer interaction. Her over two-hundred scientific articles span computer vision, pattern recognition, machine learning, human-computer interaction, and affective computing, and have been applied to found two companies: Empatica Inc. to create wearable sensors and analytics for health, and Affectiva Inc. to deliver technology to measure and communicate emotion.
This is a ticketed, free event, open to the public. Complimentary tickets can be reserved in advance, either online or by calling the Olin Theater Box Office at 540-375-2333. All tickets to be picked up between 6-7:30pm the day of the program at the will call table in the Olin Gallery Lobby. Tickets are also available at the door. Ticket limit is 6 per person.
The lecture will be held in Olin Theatre on the Roanoke College campus at 7:30pm
Co-sponsored by the Departments of Psychology, and Math, Computer Science and Physics
October 25, 2016 - Robert D. Woodberry, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science, National University of Singapore, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"Bible to Ballots, The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy"
The historic prevalence of Protestant missionaries explains about half the variation in democracy in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. Some of these religious influences were direct, shaping the ideas and institutions that made stable liberal democracy more likely; some influences were indirect, shaping mass education, mass printing, voluntary associations, nonviolent social movement tactics, and particular types of reform which dispersed power beyond traditional elites and allowed a broader segment of the population to influence politics. American Political Science Review,106(02), 244-274.
The lecture will be held in Wortmann Ballroom, Colket Center on the Roanoke College campus at 7:30pm
Co-sponsored by the Departments of Public Affairs and Sociology