Hampshire College

Karen Danna, post-doctoral research fellow in culture, brain, and development, received her B.A. in sociology and philosophy from Rutgers University. She earned her Ph.D. in sociology with an emphasis on culture and cognition from Rutgers University.

Danna’s research interests are centered at the intersection of sociology, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. She has been exploring how automatic and deliberate brain processes affect the organization of everyday social life and patterns of interaction among different thought communities. In addition, she has conducted research on decision-making, symbol systems, the social construction of knowledge, mistakes and errors, and processes of joint cognition.

Danna is currently examining the interconnections between the neural processing of ambiguous content and people’s reactions to puns. As such, she is often found making bad jokes to students and faculty.

Recent Courses
CS-0219: Time, History, and Memory (Spring 2013)
CS-0215: Ways of Seeing: The Sociocognitive Bases of Perception (Fall 2012)
CS-0215-2: Ways of Seeing: The Sociocognitive Bases of Perception (Fall 2012)
CSI-0207: What's So Funny? Humor, Culture, Cognition, and the Brain (Spring 2012)