Sian Beilock

St. Paul, Minn. Performance anxiety expert Sian Beilock will speak at Macalester College on Friday, Nov. 11, 2011, in Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul. Beilock, a psychology professor at the University of Chicago and a former college athlete, is author of the book Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting it Right When You Have To. Her talk, which is free and open to the public, begins at 8 p.m.

Beilock is one of the world’s leading researchers in human performance, an expert on the brain science behind “choking under pressure” and the many factors influencing performance of all kinds—from public speaking to golf swings. She has PhDs in both kinesiology and cognitive psychology from Michigan State University. She received the young investigator award for distinguished research in sports psychology from the International Society of Sports Psychology in 2005. In 2011 she won the prestigious Spence Award from the Association for Psychological Science for transformative early career research.

Beilock’s speech is the keynote address in a weekend conference entitled “High Stakes Performance by Liberal Arts College Students: Understanding and Coping With Anxiety” that Macalester has organized for its students and for interested faculty from several Midwestern colleges. The conference is funded with a faculty career enhancement grant from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.

Macalester College, founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,958 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism, and civic engagement.  Learn more at macalester.edu

October 25 2011

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