Courses

Two COGS Undergraduate Course Offerings in Fall 2023

Posted on July 27, 2023February 5, 2026 by Crystal Mills

We are pleased to announce TWO undergraduate course offerings from The Cognitive Science Program in Fall 2023. Seats are filling up quickly so sign up soon!

Coding for Cognitive Science

Course Name: COGS 2500Q: Coding for Cognitive Science

Days and times: Tuesdays & Thursdays from 9:30am – 10:45am

Classroom: Oak 308

Instructor: Dr. Stefan Kaufmann

Instruction mode: Hybrid Limited

Prerequisites: None

Course overview: This course is an introduction to computer programming for students with little or no prior programming experience. Its goal is to familiarize students with core concepts and essential skills, with special emphasis on typical tasks and applications in the Cognitive Sciences. We use the Python programming language because it is both accessible to beginners and widely used in real-world scientific programming. However, the concepts and skills we cover are helpful in mastering other programming languages as well.

Language & Racism

Course Name: COGS 2345/AFRA 2345: Language and Racism

Days and times: Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12:30pm – 1:45pm

Classroom: Arjona 105

Instructors: Drs. Letitia Naigles & Bede Agocha

Instruction Mode: In-Person

Prerequisites: Open to sophomores or higher. Recommended preparation: One course in AFRA or COGS.

Description: This course examines the relationships between language use, both historically and across the lifespan, and the social construction of race, racism, and racial identity, with particular emphasis on racial politics in the United States.

Course overview: LANGUAGE plays an immense, though often underrated role in nearly every domain of students’ lives, including where they live, who they love, what they learn, and whether and how they get and keep a job. Relatedly, then, language can also prevent all of the above. Language is a vehicle of racism because the language used by those in the majority or in power is artfully constructed to categorize people according to race and to place groups in deeply hierarchical relationships to one another.

Our course on Language and Racism deploys tools of the cognitive and psychological sciences to both illuminate and illustrate potential interventions for language racism.

We examine the linguistics and sociolinguistics of the language(s) used by Black communities in the U.S., including their origins, creolization, complex linguistic structure, and issues of stigma versus pride.
We examine the language of racism, including the types of discourse that construct Whiteness as dominant over Color, the processes of language standardization, and the ideologies of language and their interaction with group identity at both the local and national community levels.
We consider antiracism interventions that are language-based.
The course is project-based, with students learning to understand how language is used in their various social contexts as well as in contexts they can access via stored content. Students will learn to analyze their own and others’, famous and commonplace, racist and antiracist linguistic output/texts, using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) computational tool, which analyzes texts as manifesting properties such as anger, authority, in-group, out-group, and fairness.

Call for IBRAiN Applications

Posted on January 24, 2023February 5, 2026 by

The Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences (IBACS) is inviting graduate students to apply for the IBACS-BIRC Research Assistantships in Neuroimaging (IBRAiN) Program. These graduate assistantships are for 10 hours per week during the Fall (2023) and Spring (2024) semesters at the Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC). During the first year, assistants will be trained in neuroimaging methods, data science, and reproducibility. Assistants will spend the remaining allocated hours at BIRC, supporting users of BIRC facilities. This could involve helping design and implement experimental procedures for fMRI, EEG, TMS etc., recruitment and prepping of participants, data analysis, or overseeing use of equipment by others. Applicants will be expected to commit to the full duration of the assistantship (Fall & Spring). Funds may be available during Summer 2024 to enable IBRAiN students to pursue their own research at BIRC. IBRAiN students also receive an allocation of 20 hours of resource time to be used at BIRC during the course of the fellowship.

Up to three students will be supported in the 2023-2024 cycle. Students will participate in common training activities, but will primarily specialize in one ofthree roles at BIRC. Applicants should indicate which role(s) they wish to be considered for.
1. Research software engineer. This role assists researchers in data analysis, particularly functional MRI, using existing software, and engineering and implementing new analytic tools when needed. Qualified candidates will have demonstrated proficiency in Python, MATLAB, or Julia, and Unix like computing environments.

2. User support. This role assists researchers in using BIRC facilities, including experimental design and setup, equipment training, data management, and maintaining documentation resources. Qualified candidates will have prior experience in designing and running in-person experiments. Familiarity with Python or MATLAB is preferred.

3. MR Operator. This role assists researchers in obtaining functional and structural MRI data by learning how to operate the Siemens Prisma 3T MRI Scanner to perform brain research studies. Qualified candidates will have demonstrated an understanding of MRI safety, a high level of reliability, and the ability to work with participants across the lifespan.

The deadline for receipt of applications will be midnight on Friday, February 24, 2023

Subject to funding constraints, these assistantships could be renewed for a further year. Please refer to the full details and access the application on ourIBRAiN webpage.

If you have any questions, please contact the Institute Coordinator, Crystal Mills at crystal.mills@uconn.edu.

New undergraduate course offering: COGS Language and Racism

Posted on October 17, 2022February 5, 2026 by

New undergraduate course offering from Cog Sci: COGS Language and Racism

We invite you to register for “COGS 2345, Language and Racism”, Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12:30-1:45pm, co-sponsored by the Cognitive Science Program and co-taught by Dr. Letty Naigles and Dr. Bede Agocha. This course examines the relationships between language use, both historically and across the lifespan, and the social construction of race, racism, and racial identity, with particular emphasis on racial politics in the United States.

Prerequisites: Open to sophomores or higher. Recommended preparation: One course in AFRA or COGS.

Our course on Language and Racism deploys tools of the cognitive and psychological sciences to both illuminate and illustrate potential interventions for language racism.

We examine the linguistics and sociolinguistics of the language(s) used by Black communities in the U.S., including their origins, creolization, complex linguistic structure, and issues of stigma versus pride.
We examine the language of racism, including the types of discourse that construct Whiteness as dominant over Color, the processes of language standardization, and the ideologies of language and their interaction with group identity at both the local and national community levels.
We consider antiracism interventions that are language-based.
The course is project-based, with students learning to understand how language is used in their various social contexts as well as in contexts they can access via stored content. Students will learn to analyze their own and others’, famous and commonplace, racist and antiracist linguistic output/texts, using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) computational tool, which analyzes texts as manifesting properties such as anger, authority, in-group, out-group, and fairness.

IBACS Summer Graduate Student Fellowship Applications Due 12/2

Posted on October 17, 2022February 5, 2026 by

The Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences (CT IBACS) is inviting applications to its Graduate Fellowship Program.

These summer fellowships are intended for graduate students working on topics with relevance (broadly construed) to the Brain and Cognitive Sciences. IBACS Graduate Fellows attend a short grant-writing workshop and will be expected to submit an application to the NSF GRFP, NRSA (pre- or post-doctoral fellowship), or equivalent.

Deadline for receipt of applications is Friday, December 2nd, 2022.

Graduate students who are not US citizens are eligible to apply and are expected to work with their advisor to develop an external research proposal if they are not eligible for graduate fellowships. Students who were fellows in summer 2021 may apply if they submitted the external grant proposal they developed last year and it was not funded, with the expectation that they will revise their previous grant or develop a new one.

Please refer to the full details here before you apply. If you have any questions, please contact Crystal Mills at crystal.mills@uconn.edu.