Five Questions with Cultural Psychologist Valerie Purdie-Vaughns

The issue of race is foremost in the nation's consciousness as events in Ferguson, Mo. unfold. But for Valerie Purdie-Vaughns , there is a more important message. "There are parents sitting in their home right now who buried their son," she said. "It is a lesson about our humanity. Every other lesson is secondary." An associate professor of psychology studying intergroup relations and diversity, Purdie-Vaughns' research centers on race, and the unexpected ways it can play out. On December 3, her work will be the focus of a Stavros Niarchos Foundation Brain Insight Lecture titled, " Race Matters, but Not How You Think it Does ," at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and hosted by Columbia's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.