The Collegium de Lyon seminar

Exploratory research in the sciences and social sciences has increasingly turned to the analysis of large textual data sources. Common examples include electronic medical records, social media posts, online reviews, and digitized collections of books and periodicals.

Ancient Athens developed democracy to a higher level than any other state before modern times. It was the leading cultural innovator of its age. Athens is rightly revered for its political and cultural achievements. Less well known is this state’s extraordinary record of military success. Athens transformed ancient warfare and became one of the ancient world’s superpowers.

Prof. Arthur Stepanov (Center for Cognitive Science of Language - University of Nova Gorica - arthur.stepanov@ung.si) : The children's remarkable capacity for syntactic segmentation

Lisalou Martone (PhD candidate in history at the LER-Université Lyon 2 & the University of Ottawa) : This presentation will focus on the development of a productivity-oriented forest science in the first half of the XXth century in Canada’s eastern provinces, conceived as a “business proposition” aiming at making the forest pay.

During this lecture presented by Thaer YARTAH, we will try, through the architectural and symbolic data of Tell ' Abr 3 and other Neolithic sites in levant, to penetrate more closely into the symbolic thought and mental constructions of Neolithic communities in this area.

Simone Martini, Aurélien Belot and John Hamman, Collegium de Lyon fellows, lead a discussion on the reasons for the trend to introduce computer sciences in many national school systems and under very different terminologies.

Lia Epperson, Collegium de Lyon fellow, offers a discussion based on some themes covered in the film "Denial"

Organized by Marta Abrusan

Organized Lindsey Dodd, Thiago Chacon, Todd Reeser, Brady Wagoner, Erika Wicky,

"Understanding Public Policy through Its Instruments—From the Nature of Instruments to the Sociology of Public Policy Instrumentation", de Pierre Lascoumes et Patrick Le Galès (2007)

Jean-Alexandre Perras is a research associate at the Maison Française and the Voltaire Foundation of Oxford University. His thesis (Montreal University / University Paris 8), dealt with the history of genius between the XVIth and XVIIIth centuries. On this topic, he published L’Exception exemplaire: Inventions et usages du génie (Garnier Classics, 2015). Pursuing his works on the issue of value under the Ancien Régime, he now focuses more specifically on the notion of frivolity and its bearings on the practices of sociability and literary hierarchies.

The lecture will focus on the ways in which the ancient Maya have been studied, and the issues on whether it is possible to extend the analogies with the present-day Mayas. The Classic Maya built a fascinating civilization, which was firmly rooted in the ideology that involved beliefs in the inevitability of time changes, as well as in the complex sets of deities and spirits. The rulers had a special place in this microcosm, as they were believed to be direct descendants of the deities responsible for each city-state. Recent advancement in the decipherment of ancient Maya writing enables us to gain unprecedented insights into the structure and organization of their societies, as well as of the roles of the spiritual components in them.

Memorials are sites for a group to remember the past as part of its identity and present challenges. Over the last hundred years there has been a shift in memorial forms from a figurative representation of heroes and victories to a modern, abstract focus on victims and loss, exemplified by Maya Lin’s 'Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial'. This talk will explore this change and analyse from a psychological perspective how visitors experience and interact with different kinds of memorial sites, including ‘Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe’ in Berlin and the ‘Ground Zero National September 11 Memorial’ in New York and ‘Valley of the Fallen’ in Spain. Brady Wagoner is Professor of Psychology and Director of the MA and PhD programs in Cultural Psychology at Aalborg University (Denmark).

Languages throughout the world have dedicated mechanisms to specify information about the shape, animacy, consistency, size, location, or utility of the entities around us. An important question in linguistics is to what extent the nominal classification system of a language mirrors the way speakers see the world they live in, and to what extent the documented similarities reflect underlying, general cognitive processes in the human mind. Thus, an adequate theory of human language requires a broad sampling of diverse languages. Amazonian languages have been identified as a priority in this respect, since they are both poorly documented and highly endangered - Rosa Vallejos | Professeur associé de linguistiques à l'University du Nouveau Mexique, Albuquerque, USA

Gordon Cumming | Professor of European Foreign Affairs and International Development in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Cardiff University - Professor Tony Chafer (Portsmouth University) - Dr Roel van der Velde (RA, Cardiff University)

Gianni Paganini | Professor of history of philosophy | University of Piedmont Orientale (Vercelli)

Aurélien Belot | London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine | Biostatistic | Partner laboratory : LBBE

Érika Wicky | Histoiry of Art | Partner laboratory : LARHRA

Emmanuel Delille | Humboldt university | History of sciences | Partner laboratory : IHRIM

Hervé Joly | École Normale Supérieure de Lyon | History | Laboratory Triangle

Lia Epperson | American University | Law | Partner laboratory : EDPL

Todd Reeser | University of Pittsburg | French Studies | Partner laboratory : Centre Max Webber

Laurent Bartholdi | University Georg-August, Göttingen | Mathématics | Laboratoire partenaire : UMPA

Aleksandar Boskovic | University of Belgrade | Anthropology | Partner laboratory : LADEC

John Hamman | Florida State University | Economy | Partner laboratory : GATE

Akbar Abedi | Tabriz Islamic Arts University | Archéology | Partner laboratory : Archéorient

Simone Martini | University of Bologna | Computing sciences | Partner laboratory : LIP/IRPhil

Thiago Chacon | University of Brasilia | Linguistic | Partner laboratory : DDL

Lucia Shimbo | University of São Paulo | Urban studies | Partner laboratories : EVS and IMU

Penka Stateva | University of Nova Gorica | Linguistic | Partner laboratory : institut des sciences cognitives

Florence Paulhiac | University of Québec in Montréal | Urban studies | Partner laboratory : LAET

Photo credits : Des enfants évacués arrivent à Guéret depuis Boulogne-Billancourt, avril 1943. Courtoisie des archives départementales de la Creuse (987 W 110)

Thaer Yartah | Archéology | Partner laboratory : Archéorient