Animal Science expert Temple Grandin, Ph.D., who has experienced the obstacles of autism, launches the 2009-10 academic year at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 27.
Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Va. – Temple Grandin, Ph.D., will speak on the subject of “Autism, Animals, and Design” at Virginia Wesleyan College’s 2009 Fall Convocation, at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 27 in the Convocation Center of the Jane P. Batten Student Center. This event is free and open to the public.
Grandin, who was labeled “autistic” in 1950, will speak to students, faculty and staff about how her life with autism has influenced her understanding of animals and their needs. She credits to autism both her sensitivity to how animals experience their environments and the special visualizing gifts that have helped her to design more humane cattle facilities.
Her address launches the College’s 2009-10 academic year for students and is also the first in a series of presentations serving the Freshman Seminar program, around the question, “What is Normal?” Just as her achievements are a testament to how being
“different” can mean being gifted in unexpected ways, her insights into relationships between human and animal experiences open up larger questions about what it means to “think like a human being” – and how preconceptions about what constitutes “normal thinking” may sometimes get in our way.
Copies of Grandin’s most recent books including Animals in Translation, Animals Make us Human and Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports From My Life With Autism can be purchased from the College’s Scribner Bookstore before and after Fall Honor Convocation. Grandin will be available outside the bookstore on August 27 between 10:14 – 10: 45 a.m. to sign purchased books.
Grandin currently works as an Associate Professor at Colorado State University and also speaks around the world on both autism and cattle handling. She has been featured on major television programs, such as "ABC's Primetime Live", the "Today Show", "Larry King Live", "48 Hours" and "20/20" and written up in national publications, such as Time magazine, People magazine, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and New York Times.
For more information on Fall Convocation, contact the Dean of Students Office at 757.455.3212.
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