Dan Sperber#
Full CV including list of publications
![(info)](/images/attachment_small.png)
Professional address:
Institut Jean Nicod
CNRS/EHESS/ENS
29 rue d’Ulm
75005 Paris, France
Tel. +33(0) 1 53 59 32 80
Fax. +33(0) 1 53 59 32 99
http://www.institutnicod.org
![](/images/out.png)
Born June 20, 1942 in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France
French national
Secondary studies : Lycée Michelet (Vanves) and Lycée Louis-le-Grand (Paris)
University:
- Sorbonne 1959-1963
- Oxford (Nuffield College) 1963-1965
Degrees:
- Licence ès lettres, Sorbonne 1962
- B. Litt. Oxford 1968
Employment:
- Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris since 1965
- Director, International Cognition and Culture Web Institute (sponsored by the Department of Anthropology at the LSE and the Institut Nicod in Paris) since 2008
Grades at the CNRS:
- 1965-1971: Attaché de recherche
- 1971-1983: Chargé de recherche
- 1983-2001 : Directeur de recherche de 2ème classe
- 2001-2005 : Directeur de recherche de 1ère classe
- 2005-2008 : Directeur de recherche de classe exceptionnelle
- 2008 - : Directeur de Recherche émérite
Research units at the CNRS:
- 1965-1968: Laboratoire d'Études Africaines
- 1968-1988: Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative de l'Université de Paris X.
- 1988- 2001: Centre de Recherche en Epistémologie Appliquée, École Polytechnique.
- 2001- : Institut Jean Nicod, EHESS et ENS
Visiting positions:
- Overseas Research Scholar, St. John's College, Cambridge, U.K., Spring 1976.
- Visiting Fellow, Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem, Fall 1979.
- Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, September 1981-June 1982.
- Fellow in the Humanities, Boston University, March 1987.
- Distinguished Visitor, Suntory-Toyota International Center for Economics and Related Discipline, London School of Economics (London, May-July 1988)
- Visiting Senior Fellow of the Council of the Humanities and Old Dominion Fellow in Philosophy and Linguistics, Princeton University, February-April 1989.
- Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, Septembre-December 1990.
- Visiting Professor, British Academy, London, May-July 1992.
- Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, February-April 1993.
- Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, and Law School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Septembre-December 1994.
- Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, and Law School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, January-April 1997.
- Kenneth Robinson Fellow, Hong Kong University, Department of philosophy, October 1997.
- Visiting Professor, Department of anthropology, London School of Economics, London, January-March 1998.
- Professore Invitato, Department of communication, Universita di Bologna, April-May 1998
- Visiting Professor, Department of anthropology, London School of Economics, London, January-March 1999.
- Visiting Professor, Department of anthropology, London School of Economics, London, January-March 2000.
- Visiting Professor, Department of anthropology, London School of Economics, London, February-March 2003.
- Visiting Professor, Department of anthropology, London School of Economics, London, February-March 2004.
- Professor at the SUN-CEU Summer University, Budapest, July 2004
- Visiting Professor, Department of anthropology, London School of Economics, London, February-March 2005.
- Visiting Professor, Department of anthropology, London School of Economics, London, February-March 2006.
- Professor at the SUN-CEU Summer University, Budapest, July 2007
- Leverhulme Visiting Professorship, Department of Linguistics, University College London, September 2007- July 2008
- Centennial Visiting Professorship, Department of anthropology, London School of Economics, London, since July 2007
Academy membership:
- Foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Corresponding fellow of the British Academy
- Member of the Academia Europaea
Medals:
- Rivers Memorial Medal, Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1991.
- Silver Medal, CNRS, 2002
- Yrjö Reenpää Medal, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Helsinki, 2007
Prizes:
- Claude Lévi Strauss Prize 2009 (Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, Paris)
- Mind and Brain Prize 2009 (Università degli studi di Torino)
Editorial activities:
- Associate Editor of Cognitive Science (2001-2006)
- Editorial Committee of Journal of Cognition and Culture
- Editorial Committee of Mind and Language
- Editorial Committee of Cognition
- Editorial Committee of Pragmatics and Cognition
- Editorial Committee of Thinking and Reasoning
- Editorial Committee of Metaphor and Symbol
- Editorial Committee of Biology and Philosophy
- Editorial Committee of Biological Theory
Administrative activities:
- Member of the Commission Changeux sur les "Sciences cognitives" (1988-1989)
- Member of the Conseil scientifique de la Fondation Fyssen (1984-1992).
- Member of the Conseil scientifique de la Maison Ange Guépin à Nantes (1993-1996)
- Member of the Conseil scientifique du futur Institut des Sciences Cognitives à Lyon (1996-1998)
- Member of the Comité Jean Nicod de Philosophie Cognitive
- Director of the GDR « Développment Cognitif et Diversité Culturelle » (2000-2004)
- PI of the project L'émergence de formes nouvelles d'interdisciplinarité sur Internet. Appel d’offre Société de l’Information , CNRS, 2001-2003
- Co-foundator of the web conference site http://www.interdisciplines.org
- In charge of the creation of the electronic archives of the Institut Nicod 2002-2003.
- Co-organiser of the Summer School on Cognition and Culture at the CEU, Budapest 2007
- Director, International Cognition and Culture Web Institute (sponsored by the Department of Anthropology at the LSE and the Institut Nicod in Paris) since 2008
Named lectures:
- Malinowski Memorial Lecture, London School of Economics, 1984.
- Mircea Eliade Lectures on Religion, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, March 1992.
- Henry Sweet Lecture. Linguistics Association of Great Britain, Luton, September 1998.
- Radcliffe-Brown Lecture. British Academy, London, November 1999.
- Conférence Robert Hertz, EHESS, Paris, June 2005.
- Yrjö Reenpää lecture. Finnish Cultural Foundation, Helsinki, September 2007.
- Templeton lectures, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, April 2008
- Templeton lectures, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, October 2008
Plenary lectures:
- Invited lecture, 7th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Salzburg, July 1983.
- Invited Lecture, Meeting of the Linguistic Association of Great Britain, Norwich, April 1986.
- Distinguished Lecture, Society for Psychological Anthropology Meetings, Chicago, October 1991.
- Invited Lecture, European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Louvain, July 1992.
- Invited Address, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Annual Meeting, Vancouver, June 1993.
- Invited Lecture, 10th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Florence, August 1995.
- Conférence invitée, Troisième Conférence Internationale sur les Représentations Sociales, Aix-en-Provence, Septembre 1996.
- Plenary address, Thinking 2000: The Fourth International Conference on Thinking, Durham, August 2000.
- Invited Lecture, Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Edinburgh August 2001.
- Plenary Lecture, 8th International Pragmatics Conference, Toronto, July 2003
- Plenary Lecture, 2nd Congress “Interpreting for Relevance: discourse and translation”. Kazimierz Dolny (Pologne), June 2004.
- Plenary Lecture, AMLaP-2004 (Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing), Aix-en-Provence, September 2004
- Opening Invited Lecture, Context 05 (Paris, July 2005)
- Plenary Lecture, SIFA (Italian Society of Analytic Philosophy), Milan, September 2006.
- Plenary adress, HBES, Willamsburg, June 2007
- Plenary lecture, 10th China Pragmatics Conference, Nanjing, July 2007
Main invited lectures and seminars (2001-2009):
University of Arizona, ISC of Lyon, ENS of Paris, Australian National University in Canberra, University of Sheffield, University of Bologna, University of Venice, University of Padova, University of Göttingen, University of Bucarest, Olivetti Fondation in Rome, the CEU in Budapest, University of Nantes, the Wenner Grenn Foundation, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Rutgers University, University of Cambridge, University of Milano Biccoca, University of Vercelli, University of Siena, New York University, CUNY Graduate Center New York, Northwestern University, Emory University Atlanta, University of Mainz, University of Toulouse, University of Aix-Marseille, Université of Osaka, ICU of Tokyo, University Gakushuin of Tokyo, Kobe City University, Kansei Gakuin University, Birckbeck College in London, LSE, University of Genova, University of Harvard, New School of New York, University of Essen, Max Planck Institute of Leipzig, Max Planck Institute of Nijmegen, University of Oxford, University of Sheffield, University of Edinburgh, University of Trieste, University of Catania, University of Bristol, University of Trento, University of Princeton, University of Messina, University of Helsinki, UBC Vancouver, University of Oslo, University of Vienna, Collège de France, University of Maryland, Université de Lausanne, European Science Foundation, Università degli Studi di Torino.