Empathy and Compassion Related Conferences

Here are all the conferences I've found related to empathy and compassion.  Let me know of any others, past or upcoming. You can also Search AllConferences.com for other conferences.

Upcoming
Past Empathy Conferences
     2003
     2005
     2006
     2007
     2008
     2009
     2010

 

 

Upcoming
=================================

2010 - How to Build a Culture of Empathy and Compassion?  Bay Area, CA
Conference is in the planning stage.
 

2010-10-(14-15)  -  The Centrality of Compassion in Human Life and Society
at Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, Stanford, CA

The Dalai Lama will be at Stanford for two days in October, returning to the university to  discuss compassion, altruism and what it means to lead a meaningful life. 

2010-10-(29-31) - The Mindful Lawyer: Practices & Prospects for Law School, Bench, and Bar
ContemplativeMind.org
A remarkable gathering will take place at Berkeley’s law school, where 150 lawyers, professors, judges, and law students will come together to review the progress we’ve made. Over the ensuing weekend, they’ll meditate together and discuss the opportunities and challenges facing this movement and the legal profession as a whole. University of California at Berkeley School of Law, Contact Doug Chermak, Conference Coordinator and Law Program Director,  mindfullawyerconference@gmail.com or 510-821-3474.

2010-11-(19–21) - Mind & LIfe XXII:  New Delhi, India
Contemplative Science: The Scientific Investigation of the Effects of Contemplative Practices on Human Biology and Behavior

Nov 05 -  Building Compassion, Trust, and Happiness, (Seattle, WA)
Greater Good Science Center - Seminar

2010-11-(19-21) - 5th Annual International Conference - Engaging The Other: Power of Compassion
Sonoma State University, Sonoma , California USA

At a time when polarization is the true culprit, a multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary conference addressing fear-based belief systems, negative stereotypes, polarization, enemy images, scapegoating, and artificial barriers of distrust that divide us.

Dec 03, 2010 - Seed of Compassion - Roots of Empathy (Berkeley, CA)
Greater Good Science Center - Seminar,  UC Berkeley - Dacher Keltner, Mary Gordon
Day long seminar will offer strategies for cultivating compassion, empathy, and resilience in yourself and others.

2011

2011-05-(22-24) - 2011 Empathy and Innovation Summit - Cleveland OH
The conference focuses on innovations to improve the clinical, physical and emotional experience of patients.
 

Past Empathy Conferences
=================================

2003
 

2003-10-(16-18)  - The Promise Of Empathy
University of Iowa
"Empathy has recently emerged as a topic of critical importance: in the social sciences and
in popular political discourse we wonder about the promise of empathy in our efforts to
overcome differences of race, religion, or national culture; in the humanities and fine arts we
hope to facilitate empathy by providing an imaginative reconstruction of our own or someone
else's experience; in the natural sciences of evolutionary biology and neurophysiology we are
eager to ground empathy in human nature."

2005-01-15 - International Conference on Neuroesthetics
Empathy in the Brain and in Art - UC Berkeley
"Empathy, one of the most extraordinary feats of the human brain, plays a major role in social and artistic communication. We empathize with others and often respond with emotion to their condition. Artists, photographers, actors and film directors use our capacity to empathize to give their works heightened emotional appeal. But what are the neurological foundations of empathy, and on what specialized brain cells and systems does it depend?" Speakers:

• Vittorio Gallese

• Ray Dolan

• Leonard Pitt

• Aina Puce

• Judy Dater

• Alice O'Toole

• Frans De Waal

• Paul Ekman

2005  Greater Good Science Center - Symposium on Empathy
UC Berkeley - Their magazine has a section on empathy.
" Like many pieces of advice, the age-old adages to "put yourself in someone else's shoes" or "see the world from someone else's perspective" can sound painfully naïve. Indeed, they seem to go against human nature, serving as moralistic attempts to rein in our tendencies toward self-interest. Can we truly understand what other people are thinking or feeling—and if so, how? Those are the questions at the heart of four essays in this issue of Greater Good, which homes in on the human capacity for empathy."

• The Evolution of Empathy

• A Feeling for Fiction 

• Feeling Like Partners 

2006
 

2006-01-00 - Empathy and the Greater Good
 A Greater Good Science Center event on the science and practice of empathy, featuring Arlie Hochschild, Phil & Carolyn Cowan, Lyssa Mudd, and Jason Marsh. Introductions by Deirdre English and Dacher Keltner.

• Audio is a bit messed up

• About Greater Good Center; compassion, forgiveness, science, etc,

• Times of stress due to lack of resources

• Studies of family stress

• Empathy is a trait - some can be more empathic - depends on the conditions

• Stress, depression, more difficult to be empathic

• Some have poor examples from family examples

• How work is divided

• Stress outside of family and in society

• Childhood development is important

• Social Circumstances

• Politicians manipulate social stresses

  • why do people agree with this?

  • why do people consent?

  • contraction of the boundaries of empathy

• Bad news can make us more empathic sometimes

• What can people do?

  • we don't quite know what empathy is?

• In-group and out-groups.

• Definition of empathy -

  • being able to feel the feelings of another

  • I feel your pain and doing something consistently about it.

• How can we arrange life to facilitate empathy in our family

• How to learn family empathy skills and then on to the political level

• There are a lot of levels

• Need to start in the formative years

• A fake morality is being used - scapegoating

• Q and A

  • Many demands on your empathy?

    • To great of expectations for relationships

    • mass media is creating a market of love

    • families more isolated

  • Empathy and zero sum?

    • preoccupied with your own stress.

    • are constrained

  • Doctors and empathy?

  • A culture of humiliation?

  • Stress and its negative empathy effects?

  • Importance of nurture and the long term positive effects

2006-06-(22-23) - An International Interdisciplinary Conference
  California State University, Fullerton
The goal of this international interdisciplinary conference is to provide a forum for interdisciplinary scholarly collaboration addressing the following questions regarding empathy:

• What kind of process is empathy?,

• How does empathy differ from related psychological processes?

• What role does empathy play in our engagement with fiction?

• How do we determine whether or not attempts to empathize are successful?

• What role does empathy play in social and moral life?

• Presenters

  • Derek Matravers - Empathy and Knowledge

  • Heather Battaly - Empathy: Virtue or Skill?

  • Noel Carroll - Solidarity

  • Amy Coplan - Understanding Empathy: Its Features and Effects

  • Peter Goldie -  Anti-empathy

  • Martin L. Hoffman -  Empathy, Justice, and the Law

  • Jesse Prinz - Is Empathy Necessary for Morality?

  • Murray Smith - Five Problems for Empathy

  • Kendall Walton - In Alien Shoes

  • Stephen Davies - Infectious Music: Music-Listener Emotional Contagion

  • Paul L. Harris - The Intersection of Empathy and Testimony in Child Development

  • Gregory Currie - Empathy, Imitation and Joint Attention

  • E. Ann Kaplan -  Vicarious Trauma or 'Empty' Empathy?--Images of Catastrophe in the Public Sphere

2006-2009 - Autonomy Singularity Creativity (ASC) Conference - National Humanities Center
  "A small but growing number of philosophers, literary scholars, and other humanistic thinkers has turned to the work of computational scientists, primatologists, cognitive scientists, biologists, neuroscientists, and others in their attempts to gain a contemporary understanding of human attributes that have traditionally been described in abstract, philosophical, or spiritual terms."
 

2007-04-12 - Empathy and Ethics in Film and Literature
  The theme may be interpreted broadly, from the portrayal of empathy and/or ethics in literature and film to the way these works encourage an empathetic reaction in readers or viewers.
 

2008
 

2008-03-27 - Drivers of Our Shifting Culture
 A Panel Discussion on Empathy and Ethics (audio)
  Bill Drayton, Jill Vialet, Mary Gordon, Keith Hammonds, Kirk Hanson
"Technology has increased the flow of information and made our decision-making more transparent. In this panel discussion on empathy and ethics, Bill Drayton, Mary Gordon, Keith Hammonds, Kirk Hanson and Jill Vialet consider how empathetic ethics has to begin with individuals and can only then move into the organizations we lead and the societies we serve."
 

2008-04-15 - Seeds of Compassion Gathering
Seedsofcompassion.org, Seattle WA
"Anchored by the deep wisdom of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, this community–focused event celebrated and explored the relationships, programs and tools that nurture and empower children, families and communities to be compassionate members of society. Each of the five days provided parents, educators, business and community leaders with an opportunity to better understand the real benefits of compassion, and concrete steps on how to bring compassion into their lives."

2009

2009-09-30 - How the social brain experiences empathy
 Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, University of Chicago
"A one-day conference in Downtown Chicago
The Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience will be hosting a one-day conference led by Dr. Jean Decety entitled, "How the social brain experiences empathy."  Presentations will provide up-to-date knowledge on empathy ranging from brain circuits to patient-physician relationships, and will emphasize how many academic areas and applications, such as clinical psychology, education, psychotherapies, and others, can benefit from this new knowledge about the social brain. The conference will showcase some of the most important researchers in empathy today."

2009-10-1 - Varieties of Empathy in Science, Art and Culture
"Varieties of Empathy in Science, Art, and Culture (VOE), a workshop held at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies on 10-12 October, 2009, brought together twenty-two scholars, scientists, and artists from nine disciplines, working in six different countries, to consider the recent research into empathy, mirror neurons, autism and related phenomena and several historical antecedents and social implications of this research."

• Einfühlung and its Aesthetic Origins

• Einfühlung/Empathy in Psychology, Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis

• “Translating Empathy in the Psychological Laboratory”

• Empathy & Hermeneutics in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences

• Empathy and Evolution

• Mirror Neurons & Empathy in Cognitive Neuroscience

• Empathy and its Limits: Transmission of Affect at Cultural Boundaries

• Empathy and Aesthetics in Film and Literature

• etc.
   

2009-10-09 - Mind Life Institute - XIX: Educating World Citizens

Session Three: Compassion and Empathy Compassion and empathy are fundamental to moral and character development and to any vision of a kinder, more just, and more caring society and world.

• Speaker: Linda Lantieri, M.A.

• Panelists:

• HH Dalai Lama

• Peter Benson, Ph.D.

• Martin Brokenleg, Ph.D.

• Nancy Eisenberg, Ph.D.

• Matthieu Ricard, Ph.D.

• Mark Greenberg, Ph.D.

• Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D.

2009-11-(12-15) - "Engaging The Other:" The Power of Compassion
  San Mateo, CA  - Common Bond Institute
Advancing the consciousness of peace and healing by raising the capacity of the individual in society to compassionately transform conflict in their daily lives. Interviews of some participants.

2009-11-13 - 92Y Wonderplay Early Childhood Learning
at the 92nd Street Y  in New York City. The theme of the conference was Building Empathy and Resilience: The Role of the Early Educator.  Article: Empathy and What It Teaches Us
 

2009-03-04 - Compassion Definitions Conference at Stanford University
CCARE proposes that its inaugural conference focus on the challenges posed by the diverse perspectives of the different disciplines including philosophy, neuroscience, neuroeconomics, psychology and contemplative traditions that are engaged in the study of compassion and altruistic behavior.
 

2010

2010-04-11 - Altruism and Compassion in Economic Systems:  A Dialogue at the Interface of Economics, Neuroscience and Contemplative Sciences Zurich, Switzerland. By Mind and Life.
     

• Compassion, Empathy, Altruism and Pro-social Behavior

• Altruism: Evolutionary Origins and Modern Expressions

• Economic Research on Altruistic/Pro-social Behavior

• Introducing Prosociality into Economic Systems

• Reflections, Integration and Future Directions for Research and Policy

2010-04-22- Kinesthetic Empathy: Concepts and Contexts
"This peer-reviewed conference will be held on 22 and 23 April 2010 and will bring together researchers and practitioners in fields including neuroscience, dance, film, music, and contemporary embodied practices, to explore the nature and role of kinesthetic empathy. The conference aimed to provide a focus for the growing body of research and the increasing number of scholars and practitioners who are engaging with kinesthesia, empathy and kinesthetic empathy as pivotal concepts across different disciplines and media. This impetus  is connected with current concern with ‘affect’ as an object of enquiry, interrogation of notions of presence, embodiment and the senses, re-examination of phenomenology, and widespread interest in neuroscientific investigation (notably in the 'mirror neuron' system)."   

 

			Program - All Videos -
			Christian Keysers PART 1 - From Mirror Neurons to Kinesthetic Empathy: Keynote PART 2: From Mirror Neurons to Kinesthetic Empathy has video of monkey reacting with motor neurons to his grasping and to human grasping use test with MRIs to see if humans have the same reaction. motor neurons test with sounds, motion, vision, with human and animals motor neurons is a very fast process the brain process of empathy etc
			Glenna Batson The Embodied Brain – Facilitating Movement Learning through Mirror Neurons
			Susan Foster Dancing with the 'Mind's Muscles': A Brief History of Kinesthesia and Empathy
			Brian Knoth Embodied Mediation: Interactive Media Environments and the Audience Experience of Kinesthetic Empathy
			Marianne Eberhard-Kaechele Modalities of Kinesthetic Empathy in Dance Therapy
			Bonnie Meekums Mirroring and Embodied Subjectivity
			Gayle Milburn Empathy and Presence in the Performance of ‘ Open’ Improvisational Dance
			Tal-Chen Rabinowitch, Ian Cross and Pamela Burnard Musical Group Interaction and empathy - a mutual cognitive pathway?
			etc

2010-04-24 - Compassionate Seattle 
The Compassionate Action Network, Seeds of Compassion and the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education create an event on compassion . Event flyer in pdf

2009-2010 - Interdisciplinary Seminar on Empathy  - Participants
Indiana University invites applications for a post-doctoral residential fellow on the topic of empathy and virtue as part of a research team exploring, “Virtuous Empathy: Scientific and Humanistic Perspectives,”


2010-07-16 - 2010 - Empathy and Innovation Summit
With a capacity crowd of physicians, hospital executives, nurses and other healthcare professionals, the conference focused on innovations to improve the clinical, physical and emotional experience of patients.

2010-07-(08-09) - Exploring The Language of Mental Life -Telluride, CO

The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University has announced a conference on the Language of Mental Life scheduled for July 7-9, 2010 during which western scientists will meet with Buddhist scholars to create a lexicon for better understanding the key terms of mental life.