SfNC 2026 Speaker and Program Info
2026 Program at a Glance
2026 Full Program
Keynote Speakers
Helmut Leder
Helmut Leder is full professor of Empirical Visual Aesthetics (in Psychology) at University of Vienna. In 2004, he founded an official research focus in Empirical Aesthetics, which was the first of its kind, and has a leading role various areas of empirical aesthetics (faces, design, art, museum studies, emotion). Helmut Leder was Head of Department (2004-2020) and is the Speaker of the interdisciplinary Research Institution Cognitive Science HUB. Helmut Leder has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, in various fields of empirical aesthetics and visual perception and has been cited over 20,000 times. From 2014 until 2018 he was the president of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics and organized the biannual international Conference of IAEA 2016 in Vienna. He was visiting Researcher at Sorbonne, Keio University, USC, CUNY, and Fellow at the Italian Academy of Advanced Studies of America at Columbia, Waseda and Keio again. In 2020, he was awarded the Arnheim Award of the APA American Psychological Association, Div. 10, for Outstanding Achievement in Psychology and the Arts, and in 2024 the Fechner Award of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics for Outstanding Contributions to Empirical Aesthetics. He was Action Editor of the British Journal of Psychology (since 2013, until 01.10.2020), and is Editorial Board Member of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts (since 2011); Editorial Board of Empirical Studies of the Arts (since 2006).
Thalia Goldstein is an associate professor and director of the Applied Developmental Psychology program at George Mason University, where she directs the Play, Learning, Arts, and Youth Lab, and co-directed the Mason Arts Research Center (a National Endowment for the Arts Lab) from 2018-2025. Her research focuses on children’s and adolescents’ social and emotional development through engagement with theatre and the arts. Goldstein’s academic work has been published in more than 75 articles and chapters, and funded by The National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The John Templeton Foundation. Her most recent book is “Why Theatre Education Matters: Understanding its Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Benefits”. She earned her BA from Cornell University, her MA and PhD from Boston College and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University. She was co-editor of the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts from 2017-2025, and was named fellow of the American Psychological Association in 2023.
Thalia Goldstein
Oshin Vartanian
Oshin Vartanian received his PhD in experimental psychology from the University of Maine. He is past-Editor of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts and Empirical Studies of the Arts, and serves on the editorial boards of Creativity Research Journal, Thinking Skills and Creativity, and Journal of Creative Behavior. His co-edited volumes include the Cambridge Handbook of the Neuroscience of Creativity and the Oxford Handbook of Empirical Aesthetics. He is the president of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA). His primary areas of interest include the psychological and neurological bases of aesthetics and creativity, specifically the ways in which the brain supports the creation and appreciation of art in its various forms.
Anjan Chatterjee is a Professor of Neurology, Psychology, and Architecture and the founding director of the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics. He wrote The Aesthetic Brain, and co-edited Neuroethics in Practice, The Roots of Cognitive Neuroscience, and Brain, Beauty, and Art. He has served on editorial boards of several neuroscience, neurology, ethics, and aesthetics journals. He received the Norman Geschwind Prize in Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology from the American Academy of Neurology, the Rudolph Arnheim Prize for contributions to Psychology and the Arts from the American Psychological Association, the Lawrence Forman Award from Haverford College for contributions for the betterment of society, the Leadership in Innovation Award from the Global Wellness Institute, and The Big Sea Award for the Promotion of Aesthetic Beauty from the Mediterranean Tourism Forum. He was Chair of Neurology at Pennsylvania Hospital, a founding member of the Board of Governors of the Neuroethics Society, the past President of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics and the Behavioral/Cognitive Neurology Society. He serves on the boards of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, The Global Wellness Institute, and Philadelphia Fringe Arts, and previously was on the boards of Haverford College, and Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Anjan Chatterjee
Invited Artist Speakers, Panelists, and Performers
Renee Fleming
Renée Fleming is one of the world’s most celebrated sopranos, renowned for her luminous voice, expressive artistry, and expansive repertoire spanning opera, concert, jazz, and contemporary music. A four-time Grammy Award winner, she has performed on the stages of leading opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, and Vienna State Opera, and has appeared at major global events ranging from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Super Bowl. Her recordings and performances have earned widespread critical acclaim, establishing her as a defining voice of her generation. Beyond her musical achievements, Fleming is a leading advocate for the intersection of arts and science. She has played a central role in advancing the NeuroArts Blueprint, an initiative dedicated to exploring how the arts impact brain health, cognition, and emotional well-being. Through public speaking, collaborations with neuroscientists, and national advocacy efforts, she has helped bring attention to the emerging field of NeuroArts, promoting the integration of artistic practice into healthcare, education, and public policy.
Judith Schaechter
Judith Schaechter is a celebrated Glass Artist who lives and works in Philadelphia. Her work is collected internationally and is represented in the collections of the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert in London and the Hermitage, among others.
She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005 and her work was in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. 1n 2013, Judith was inducted to the College of Fellows of the American Craft Council. She received a lifetime achievement award from the Glass Art Society in 2022 and in 2023, she was named a Smithsonian Visionary Artist.
In 2020-21, Judith’s work was the subject of a retrospective exhibition organized by the Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, NY, which traveled to the Toledo Museum and the Des Moines Art Center.
Chris Bodwitch
Chris Bodwitch is an artist and educator whose practice is rooted in clown training and embodied play. Drawing on philosopher C. Thi Nguyen's concept of "striving play" and Lisa Feldman Barrett's research on emotion granularity, Chris designs playful exercises that reframe emotions like fear and anxiety as forms of intelligence—mini-laboratories for noticing, differentiating, and moving with discomfort. Her performance “The Messages of Play” will be a highly intellectual and emotional informance…
Sloka Iyengar
Sloka Iyengar is a neuroscientist and Bharatanatyam practitioner whose research spans epilepsy, palliative care, mental health, and misophonia. Trained at Nritya Kala Kendra in Ahmedabad, she creates productions that explore where dance and neuroscience converge, and—through fellowships from LMCC and the New York Public Library—brings Bharatanatyam to older adults, including those living with dementia.
Chris Belkofer
Chris Belkofer is a Milwaukee musician and one half of post-punk duo Genau. His solo project, Bernadette, works in the no wave tradition of making a guitar sound like anything but a guitar—using alternate tunings, pedals, and tape loops to build drones and textures that can't be played the same way twice. Panic Songs responds to recurring panic attacks not by smoothing the edges, but by sitting with them.
Jennifer Joseph
Dessa
Dessa is a singer, rapper, and writer who fell in love with language as a toddler—and just never got over it. Now, she works in fields that traffic in words: she's recorded rap bangers as part of the fiercely independent Doomtree collective, released a live album with the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra; contributed to The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler; delivered a TED Talk on the intersection of romance and neuroscience that's notched more than 4 million views; hosted two seasons of behavioral science podcast Deeply Human (BBC/American Public Media); and published a memoir recounting most of the above called My Own Devices (Penguin Random House). She lives in Minneapolis and Manhattan. You can listen to her music, read her writing, and check out the tour schedule at dessawander.com or find her on Instagram as @dessa, and on Facebook and Bluesky as @dessadarling.
Lucas Kelly
Lucas Kelly's work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States and throughout Europe. His work has been the subject of multiple solo and group exhibitions, most notably in the survey of abstract painting "The Painted World" at PS1 MoMA. In 2019 Kelly was named as the inaugural artist in residence at the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics. A full professor in Visual Arts at Mercer County Community College, Kelly holds a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and a MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts. He is a member of the Tiger Strikes Asteroid network of artists, and his studio is in Philadelphia.
Window into the Creative Mind
Chelsea DeSouza is a pianist who improvises near, middle, and far variations on classical and jazz themes she's seeing for the first time… while wearing wireless mobile brain-body imaging equipment. Developed with neuroengineer Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, composer Anthony Brandt, and multimedia artist Badie Khaleghian, the performance renders divergent thinking visible in real time.
Alejandro Escobedo
Alejandro Escobedo is an actor, clown, and juggler who has navigated between theater and contemporary circus across France, Europe, the Americas, and Asia for over 20 years. A student of legendary clown Slava Polunin and winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 38th Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain, he created Circo Infinito at Moulin Jaune in 2022—a poetic exploration of circus as infinite play.
United We Scribe
Lemon Andersen is a Tony Award-winning poet, performer, and educator whose work spans theater, film, and television. A longtime collaborator of Spike Lee and Stan Lathan, he leads United We Scribe—a digital and live performance platform inviting Americans to narrate their own relationships to the civic landscape, starting with the US Constitution.