About this Event
On December 8th, we present : "The World Inside Your Head: How Perceptions Build Society" by Prof. Daphne Maurer, OC, PhD.
Expect a fascinating evening exploring how our brains learn to make sense of the world — and how our earliest perceptions can shape everything from family relationships to racism and even war.
How do we learn to recognize the people around us? And how can something as fundamental as the way our brains process the world contribute to prejudice and division?
Our earliest sensations help shape the categories through which we understand the world. From infancy, our brains begin learning to recognize familiar people and navigate our social environments. But these same processes can also have unexpected consequences.
In this thought-provoking lecture, Prof. Daphne Maurer explores how basic sensory experiences develop into the social categories and interactions that shape our lives. She examines how and why racial biases can begin forming during the first year of life, and how the ways we perceive and categorize others can influence relationships and societies on a much larger scale.
How do the building blocks of perception shape the societies we create — and can the origins of division be found in the way we first learn to see the world?
💡 About the incredible Prof. Daphne Maurer, OC, PhD
Prof. Daphne Maurer is a distinguished scholar whose work explores perception and the development of the human brain. She is a Professor Emerita at McMaster University, where she spent much of her career studying how infants and children develop visual perception.
She has been recognized as an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contributions to developmental psychology and our understanding of how the brain develops.
Join us for an evening exploring the surprising connection between how we perceive the world and how we build society — from the earliest moments of life to the relationships and divisions that shape our world.
📅 Date: December 8, 2026
🕡 Time: 6:30 – 8:30 PM
📍 Location: Civil Works
🎤 Speaker: Professor Daphne Maurer, PhD.
🎟 Seats are limited!
Event venue & nearby stays
Civil Works, 50 Brant Street, Toronto, Canada
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