Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

Arts and Sciences’ Milton First-Year Lecture presents Harvard linguist Steven Pinker Oct. 6

Wednesday, October 6, 2010, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Arts and Sciences
Steven Pinker—one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists, interested in all aspects of language and the mind—is delivering the Milton First-Year Lecture in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences. Open only to College first-year and transfer students, the lecture is Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Goldstein Auditorium of the Schine Student Center. The event is funded by the Laura Hanhausen Milton Freshman Lecture Endowment, and is an integral part of The College’s first-year experience.
 
For more information, call the Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Programming at 443-1011.
 
pinker“We are honored to present Steven Pinker, one of the great cognitive philosophers of our time,” says Arts and Sciences Dean George M. Langford. “His unique and interdisciplinary research embodies the spirit of the liberal arts, inspiring scientists and humanists alike.”
Gerald R. Greenberg, The College’s senior associate dean of curriculum, instruction, and programs, says that Pinker is something of a celebrity in academic circles. “His books are bestsellers. His lectures are sellouts. People resonate with him because of his ability to present complex ideas with wit and flair,” says Greenberg.

Since 2003, Pinker has doubled as the Harvard College Professor and as the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Before that, he held a variety of faculty posts at MIT, including director of the McDonnell-Pew Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1979.
 
Much of Pinker’s early work was in visual cognition—the ability to imagine shapes, to recognize faces and objects, and to direct attention within the visual field. In graduate school, he cultivated an interest in language, particularly language development in children, and this topic eventually overtook his research activities. He has since published hundreds of related articles, essays, and book chapters, and has authored seven award-winning books, including “The Stuff of Thought: Language As a Window Into Human Nature” (Viking, 2007) and “The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature”

(Penguin, 2002).
Although his books make bestseller lists, his research occasionally makes waves among academics. Some of the controversy stems from what Pinker argues in “The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language”

(Harper, 1997), that language is innate and humans have a common “universal grammar.” “Biology isn’t destiny,” he said, after being named to Time magazine’s “Top 100” list in 2004. “Nature is what we’re put in this world to rise above.”
The Milton First-Year Lecture is named for Laura Hanhausen Milton ’50, a member of The College’s Board of Visitors who, along with her husband, Jack ’50, is a long-time supporter of the University. The lecture is the signature event of The College’s first-year experience, a series of programs designed to facilitate students’ transition to University life. Past speakers have included Shen Wei Dance Arts, Jane Goodall, Henry Louis Gates, Isabel Allende and David McCullough.
 
“Engaging with a world-renowned thinker such as Steven Pinker is a memorable way to begin one’s college career,” says Greenberg, adding that the program concludes with a Q&A session and author book-signing. “It’s one of the highlights of the academic year.”
 

 

 

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • NSF I-Corps Semiconductor and Microelectronics Free Virtual Course Being Offered
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Cristina Hatem
  • Jianshun ‘Jensen’ Zhang Named Interim Department Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Emma Ertinger
  • Traugott Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Bing Dong to Present at Prestigious AI Conference
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Emma Ertinger
  • Lender Center Researcher Studies Veterans’ Post-Service Lives, Global Conflict Dynamics
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By Diane Stirling
  • Maxwell’s Robert Rubinstein Honored With 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By News Staff

More In Campus & Community

Lender Center Researcher Studies Veterans’ Post-Service Lives, Global Conflict Dynamics

Corri Zoli ’91, G’93, G’04 was recently named a research associate of the Lender Center for Social Justice. She applies social science, law and public policy perspectives to problems of warfare, governance in modern human conflicts and the role of…

Maxwell’s Robert Rubinstein Honored With 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching

Robert Rubinstein, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and professor of international relations in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, is the recipient of the 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching. The prize is awarded annually to a faculty member…

National Ice Cream Day: We Tried Every Special at ’Cuse Scoops So You Don’t Have To

National Ice Cream Day is coming up on Sunday, July 20, and what better way to celebrate than with a brain freeze and a sugar rush? Armed with spoons and an unshakable sense of duty, members of the Syracuse University…

Message From Chief Student Experience Officer Allen W. Groves

Dear Members of the Orange Community: It is with profound sadness that I write to remember two members of our Syracuse University community, whose lives were cut short last Thursday when they were struck by a vehicle at the intersection…

Haowei Wang Named Maxwell School Scholar in U.S.-China/Asia Relations

Haowei Wang, assistant professor of sociology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, has been named the Yang Ni and Xiaoqing Li Scholar in U.S.-China/Asia Relations for the 2025-26 academic year. Wang’s one-year appointment began on July 1….

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.