(Re)imagining the Brain Sciences

This award supports a CAREER project that engages in research and teaching activities related to the societal implications of neuroscience research. The PI will provide new guidelines to help stimulate greater collaboration between the social sciences, neurosciences, and society. Ongoing results from this project will be made available to the public through open forum engagements and to university and high school students through classroom-based lectures to help educate a wider audience about neuroscience’s sociological benefits and challenges. This project uses a qualitative sociological approach to map the relationships between overlapping neuroscientific "social worlds"- funding bodies, publication mechanisms, professional organizations, agencies, research labs, and bioethical domains. It will provide recommendations and educational resources for neuroscience based upon its findings. The project contributes to existing literature in Bioethics, Sociology, and Science and Technology Studies (STS) on societal impacts of neuroscience research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.