Academics
Curricular Programs
The University of Chicago was founded in 1890 as a private, nondenominational, coeducational institution dedicated to the creation and transmission of knowledge. The University’s main campus is located in the Hyde Park neighborhood in south Chicago. More than 2,100 full-time academic staff teach or conduct research at the University, and approximately 3,500 students are enrolled in an undergraduate college and 10,000 students enrolled in four graduate divisions and six professional schools. The unusual 0.35 ratio of undergraduate to graduate students combined with the unique organizational structure at the University of Chicago (e.g., the Deans controlling faculty appointments and Departmental resources are research deans who are not responsible for undergraduate teaching) has led to its characterization as a research institution with exceptional graduate training programs and an intense and demanding undergraduate program.
The University of Chicago's interdisciplinary approach, championed since its inception in 1890, has ideally situated the institution to create new fields of knowledge that address society’s complexities and challenges. More than 70 Nobel Prize winners are associated with the University as faculty members, researchers, or alumni, and 18 doctoral programs are ranked in the top 10 by the National Research Council. The University’s scholarship is marked by a willingness to challenge conventional thinking and a desire to explore uncharted territory. Support for research, training, and academics at the University comes from a variety of sources, with the University receiving in excess of $300 million in sponsored funding in fiscal year 2003.
The multidisciplinary study of the mind also has a long and revered tradition at the University of Chicago. Originally founded as the Laboratory of Psychology in 1893, for instance, the Department of Psychology for more than a century has been a leading center of scholarship, research, and teaching in psychology and related fields. Distinguished faculty and students have included George Herbert Mead, John Dewey, James Rowland Angell, Donald Campbell, Louis L. Thurstone, Donald W. Fiske, Norman Anderson, Norman Bradburn, and Roger Sperry. The lead article in Volume 1, Number 1 of the Psychological Bulletin, which appeared January 15, 1904, was entitled "The Chicago School" by William James and is a review of papers by John Dewey, James Rowland Angell, George Herbert Mead, and A. W. Moore. The first course in Social Psychology (entitled "Contemporary Social Psychology") was taught at The University of Chicago by George Herbert Mead in 1900. A central concept of this work was the consideration of the importance of context, social and psychological, in understanding any aspect of mind. The University of Chicago Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience reflects this intellectual heritage in its commitment to research, the scope of its inquiry, and the multidisciplinary nature of its training.
Graduate Training in Cognitive and Social Neuroscience
The Department of Psychology is organized into specialized training and research programs that reflect the contemporary state of the discipline as well as wide-ranging interests of its own faculty. They are currently the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Program, the Developmental Psychology Program, the Language Program, The Perception Program, and the Social Psychology Program. The interdisciplinary character of the University and the Department of Psychology is reflected in the fact that many faculty members serve on more than one of the department's programs. In addition to these doctoral programs, the flexibility exists for graduate training in a cross-cutting area such as cognitive and social neuroscience. To inquire further about psychology at the University of Chicago, please contact:
Marjorie Wash
Student Affairs Beecher 109
Department of Psychology University of Chicago
5848 S. University Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
(773) 702-8861
marj@uchicago.edu
Courses Offerings
Center faculty offer a variety of courses and workshops that are of interest to students and trainees. Illustrative courses are listed below, though who teaches them and when the courses are offered may vary. Students should contact the faculty for additional information and for permission to enroll.
- Cognitive Neuroscience (Nusbaum & Cacioppo, Winter Quarter, even numbered years)
- Social Neuroscience (Cacioppo & Nusbaum, Spring Quarter, even numbered years)
- fMRI Methods (Small & Nusbaum, Winter Quarter, odd numbered years)
- fMRI Roundtable (Small, every quarter)
MD/PhD Program
The University of Chicago Pritzker Medical School offers programs to combine independent research and the study of medicine by obtaining the MD and PhD degrees concurrently. On average, 20% of our medical students pursue combined degrees. Additional information is available at http://mdphd.bsd.uchicago.edu. A related program, the MD/PhD Program in Medicine, Social Sciences and Aging at the University of Chicago, is designed to provide training in medicine (leading to an MD) in combination with training in the social sciences (leading to a PhD). This program originated from a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and seeks to promote clinical skills and theoretical and methodological grounding from the social sciences to bear on important problems in aging.
Postdoctoral Program
Postdoctoral fellows associated with the Center (Ph.D.s or M.D.s) have their own funding, for instance, from NIH or NSF. If you are such an individual and wish to do postdoctoral training with one or more faculty in the Center, contact Matthew Christian at the address below. In addition, the Center is developing programs for multidisciplinary postdoctoral training for both MD and PhD recipients. The program is designed to equip students with the conceptual and methodological tools necessary to investigate the underlying processes and mechanisms of the mind from multiple levels of analysis. Check back for additional information.
