DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Colloquium Series

Departmental Colloquium Series 2025-2026

During the academic year, the department of psychology invites respected scholars to give lectures on research and theory in contemporary psychology. Please see the schedule below for more details and room locations. All are welcome to attend and engage with the Northwestern Psychology Community.

October

Dr. Daniel Pine

Title: Advancing psychiatric care through research in clinical neuroscience

Abstract:

This presentation will review the ways in which research in neuroscience inform therapeutic discovery focusing on the area of anxiety disorders.  A developmental focus will be emphasized, highlighting perturbations in brain function that manifest similarly across ages as well as those that differ in pediatric and adult anxiety disorders.  The presentation also provide relatively broad review of multiple topics relevant to therapeutics as well as a more in-depth consideration of novel treatments arising through research on attention and the insights this reveals for computer-based attention retraining therapies. 

Faculty Panel

Date: Friday, October 17th, 2025 - 3:15pm
Location: Swift Hall 107

Panelist: Dr. Katie Insel, Dr. Sandra Waxman, Dr. Alissa Levy-Chung

November

Dr. Yair Bar-Haim

Date: Friday, November 14th, 2025 - 3:15pm
Location: Swift Hall, Room 107
Website: Yair Bar-Haim 

Title: 

Targeted Primary Prevention of PTSD: The Role of Threat Monitoring in Trauma Response

Abstract: 

This talk will explore how the quality of threat monitoring during and after exposure to trauma influences vulnerability to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Neuro-cognitive mechanisms underlying adaptive and maladaptive responses to perceived threat and how these processes may be targeted to reduce the risk for PTSD onset will be discussed. Evidence from recent intervention studies will be presented, highlighting the efficacy of early, targeted protocols designed to promote resilience and reduce the likelihood of persistent trauma-related symptoms. 

January

Dr. Sapna Cheryan

Date: Friday, January 9,2026 - 3:15pm
Location: Swift Hall, Room 107
Website: Sapna Cheryan

Title:  Toward a New Understanding of Racial Position

Abstract: Racial and ethnic groups of color have been Othered in U.S. society, but not in uniform ways. Our work integrates a dimension of cultural foreignness along with the more commonly studied dimension of perceived status to suggest that different racial and ethnic groups face qualitatively different experiences of discrimination in the U.S. (Zou & Cheryan, 2017). In this talk, I will draw upon this Racial Position Model and share our new work on its implications for understanding discrimination and intraminority relations. We find, using controlled laboratory experiments and employment discrimination cases, that racial and ethnic minority groups face different forms of discrimination in the labor market. We also find that creating intraminority solidarity may at times require acknowledging differences between groups. Systematically integrating a dimension of cultural foreignness gives us insight into the differing experiences of racial and ethnic minority groups and how to create solidarity between them.

February

Industry Panel

Date: Friday, February 20, 2026 - 3:15pm
Location: Virtual

Panelist: Jun Won Park (Expedia), Brittany Torrez (Yelp), Cassie Brandes (BetterUp)

May

Dr. Mahzarin Banaji

Date: Friday, May 1st , 2026 - 3:15pm
Location: KGH 5301 (new location)
Website: Mahzarin Banaji

Title:  Implicit Social Cognition

Abstract: 

The field of implicit social cognition emerged from a focus on method development in response to an integration of principles of psychological science such as Helmholtz’s discovery that the world is not perceived directly but through a series of inferences, from psychology’s illustrious history of research on learning and memory, and from discoveries like Herbert Simon’s that human thought is boundedly rational. By walking the 40-year research path of my lab, I will tell the untold story of this research in the form of lessons learned, how I came to understand the surprising and even perplexing manner in which implicit bias operates and reactionary challenges to it; the signature behavioral result of implicit-explicit dissociation and association; the neural underpinnings of implicit cognition; its developmental trajectory; its malleability in response to macro sociopolitical influences; its prediction of socially significant outcomes in the domains of health, education, employment and legal treatment at the regional level. If time permits, I will point to current research on the manifestation of bias in LLMs today. The overarching call of this work is a simple one: to deeply understand implicit cognition so that we can do what we have done, as a species, so many times before in our history: to outsmart the limits of our own minds to ensure that our values of accuracy and fairness are translated into a more praiseworthy world.

Dr. Caterina Gratton

Date: Friday, May 8th, 2026 - 3:15pm
Location: Swift Hall, Room 107
Website: Caterina Gratton

Title:  Chasing Precision: studying individuals to provide new insights into human brain networks and their role in control

Abstract: 

Different regions of the brain interact with one another through large-scale networks. These network interactions are important to many aspects of cognition, including our ability to control our thoughts and actions in the service of goals. In my lab, we study large-scale network organization in humans and the principles by which it can vary -- and how these variations contribute to control functions and their breakdown. In the presentation, I will review a sampling of recent studies from our lab investigating forms of variation in large-scale networks within and across people. I will then discuss how these variations influence our studies of control.

Dr. Lei Yuan

Date: Friday, May 22nd, 2026 - 3:15pm
Location: Swift Hall, Room 107
Website: Lei Yuan

Title: TBA

Abstract: 

TBA