Fear of the Dark: Cultural Myth, Psychological Schema, and Prejudice

The Bahá'í Chair for World Peace
Fall Lecture Series

Fear of the Dark:
Cultural Myth, Psychological Schema, and Prejudice
 

Tuesday, October 10, 2017 3:00pm Fear of the Dark: Cultural Myth, Psychological Schema, and Prejudice Atrium, 1107, Stamp Student Union, University of Maryland, College Park

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Dr. Sheri Parks  Former associate dean for research, interdisciplinary scholarship and programming for the College or Arts and Humanities, an associate professor of American studies, and the first director of the Arts and Humanities Center for Synergy at the University of Maryland (UMD) at College Park.  Sheri Parks is a long-time and award-winning public radio host and commentator and a regular cultural critic for WYPR-NPR and the Baltimore Sun podcast, “Roughly Speaking.” Her general research area is that of public aesthetics, the ways in which people find and create meaning and beauty in their everyday lives, with specific emphasis on race, gender, social class, and sexuality. Her most recent publication is Fierce Angels: Living with a Legacy from the Sacred Dark Feminine to the Strong Black Woman. Abstract: We often think of prejudice as an individual attribute, but there are cultural and psychological underpinnings that lead to the generation and stabilization of attitudes related to stereotypes and prejudice. In this session, we will explore the Western cultural conceptualization of darkness, as exhibited in old and new mythologies, and how it has created a foundation and rationale for racial marginalization of people described as “dark.” We will examine how myths are represented in psychological schemas that form the bases of our cognitive organization and social expectations and how present day examples reflect their mythic legacies.