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Mindbridge Community Conversation
May 18, 2023 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Join the University of Maine at Presque Isle on May 18 from 6pm-8pm for an important community conversation!
UMPI Community Conversation Description
We often think of our society as a place where everyone has the same (or close to the same) opportunity to succeed and thrive. However, historical patterns of sorting/ranking each other (by race, religion, gender, language, and orientation) still have powerful effects on how we relate to one another today. Forms of bias and structural inequity negatively impact the health and well-being of marginalized populations and stall our collective ability to thrive. This community conversation will provide an initial introduction to implicit bias and how increasing our awareness and understanding of bias directly relates to advancing greater equity of opportunity, experience, and outcomes in our local institutions and communities. Here we invite community members to join Mindbridge Executive Director Laura Ligouri, in exploring our experience with bias and opportunities to collectively advance opportunities within our communities.
About Mindbridge
Mindbridge is a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the impact of local, national and international human rights work by integrating psychological and neurobiological applied science. Mindbridge uses neuroscience and psychology to assess the values, beliefs, motivations, and drivers of violence in order to develop more effective interventions and propel change. We partner with government and community-based organizations to co-develop a holistic approach to societal transformation. It is ultimately through our understanding of how the brain gives rise to the mind that we no longer work to simply combat human rights abuses in an endless cycle of violence, but guide the psyche towards the strengthening of society built upon the tenets of human rights itself. Here neurobiological and psychological sciences propel data-driven intervention and program design, giving human rights defenders access to the hearts and minds they need to connect to most. For more information visit: www.mindbridgecenter.org
About Laura Ligouri
Laura Ligouri is the Executive Director and Founder of Mindbridge. Her interest in the intersection of neuroscience and human rights emerged while at the Saxelab Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at MIT, where neurobiological research often sought to understand the biological underpinnings of implicit bias, inter-ethnic social conflict, violence and conversely collective empowerment and change. Laura’s interests lie at the intersection of how neurobiological processes, culture and societal influences converge to give rise to and perpetuate bias, discrimination and violence within and among groups. Laura teaches the Neuropsychology of Social Justice at the University of Southern Maine and is currently spearheading efforts to develop a national guideline for psychologists’ involvement with domestic counterterrorism efforts. Laura will present with the American Psychological Association on public psychology and its role in countering hate at the 2022 Science, Technology and Human Rights Conference hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Laura is currently completing her PhD in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in neuropsychological research.
