Dr. Maryanne Wolf Guest Speaker For Heinz Ethics Series

Thursday, October 12, 2023, 6 p.m.

The Upper School and its English Department proudly welcome Dr. Maryanne Wolf to campus on October 12. Dr. Wolf is a neuroscientist, literacy advocate, author of the books Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (2018) and Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (2007), and the director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

In research spanning several decades, Dr. Wolf’s work on literacy and the brain delves into both the physiological and intellectual impacts of the process of reading, and her most recent book focuses on the neurological and social significance of reading paper texts in our increasingly digital world and its current attention economy. 

Please join us for an illuminating evening in which Dr. Wolf will share her compelling research and insights about how the reading brain is being altered by omnipresent digital screens and about the essential need to build the brain’s “cognitive patience” that is required to read deeply.

In her explanation of the vital role that reading plays in developing compassionate, empathetic members of society, Dr. Wolf both offers suggestions about how to encourage bi-literate reading fluency across media and warns of what could be lost if we do not pay closer attention to how technology is literally reshaping our brains.

For more info about Dr. Wolf: