Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology, will be the featured writer in the Fall 2024 Berkeley Writers at Work series. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 29, from noon to 1:30 pm in the Morrison Library, 101 Main Library, on the UC Berkeley campus.
In addition to his position as psychology professor, Dr. Keltner is the faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center (greatergood.berkeley.edu). His research focuses on the biological and cultural evolution of compassion, awe, love, beauty, and humility, as well as power, social class, and inequality. He is the author of several books, including Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence, and AWE: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life. Professor Keltner is the recipient of multiple research, teaching, mentoring, and service awards, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has consulted for Apple, Pinterest, Google, the Sierra Club, and was a scientific consultant for Pixar Animation Studios films Inside Out , Inside Out 2, and Soul and for the Center for Constitutional Rights in its work to outlaw solitary confinement.
Keltner has published more than 200 academic articles and has written for, among other publications, The New York Times, The London Times, SLATE, and Utne Reader. The Wall Street Journal, in its review of the book AWE, writes, “The good, the true, the beautiful—those perennials—create a through-line in many of Mr. Keltner’s wonderful stories.” And The Guardian review of AWE notes that, “For Keltner, awe is an ennobling experience, one that can foster wonder, creativity and collaboration. He understood this in 2019 when he lost his brother, Rolf, to colon cancer, and he writes movingly about the transformative feelings that followed.”
The Berkeley Writers at Work series provides a venue for campus writers to talk about their writing process—from getting ideas, to drafting, to revising. Professor Keltner will read from his work, be interviewed about his writing process, and answer questions from the audience.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information on Berkeley Writers at Work, visit https://writing.berkeley.edu/news/berkeley-writers-work.
