Images Cinema Williamstown, MA
Dr. Jeremy Cone
Associate Professor of Psychology, Williams College
andDr. Jason E. Young
Visiting Field Memorial Assistant Professor of Astronomy, Williams College
Melancholia— Eco-disaster: When worlds collide
Program Description
Drs. Cone and Young will discuss the mental illness and catastrophizing displayed in the film (both metaphorically and physically), as well as the very real science of rogue planets.
This January's theme is “Eco-Disaster: How We Imagine Humankind Will Navigate Global Catastrophe.” Each talk will be unique to each film and the academic focuses of each speaker, all will delve into both the actual scientific probability of such disaster occurring — and if it will occur as depicted in the film — and the veracity of the human responses to directly avoid said catastrophe and/or the psychological/sociological effects of the catastrophe coming to pass.
Presented At
Images Cinema Williamstown, MA
Film Synopsis
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) celebrate their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of Justine’s sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland). Despite Claire’s best efforts, the wedding is a fiasco with family tensions mounting and relationships fraying. Meanwhile, a planet called Melancholia is heading directly towards Earth threatening the very existence of humankind...
Photo credit: Magnolia Pictures
About the Speaker
Prof. Jeremy Cone is an associate professor in the Psychology dept. He received his Ph.D in social psychology from Cornell University in 2012, and, after completing a postdoc at Yale University, he joined the Williams faculty in 2015. Jeremy’s research focuses on person perception, including impression formation and updating, as well as the nature of empathic responding. His work has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, and Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. It has also been featured in the New York Times, NPR, CNN Business Perspectives, and Scientific American.
Prof. Jason Young's research interests focus on the evolution of galaxies, and understanding the physical conditions that foster galaxies like our own Milky Way. His work has involved observations with a range of telescopes, both on the ground and in space. He earned his PhD at Penn State, and he was recently a postdoc at UMass Amherst and a faculty at Mount Holyoke College.