Speakers:
Antonio Zadra (Psychology, Université de Montréal)
Elizaveta Solomonova (Psychiatry, McGill University)
Is it possible to control dreams through lucid dreaming states? Do dreams control us in the form of nightmares and other disturbances along the sleep/wake threshold? The act of dreaming and the research on dreams raise profound questions about the modes of agency, (inter)subjectivity and experience that we inhabit through sleep. This Salon brings together dream researchers from the team at the Sociability of Sleep to discuss the philosophical and social questions raised at the margins of the dream world.
✦ Antonio Zadra is Professor of Psychology at the Université de Montréal, where he is a researcher at the Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine. Having published extensively on dreams and parasomnias in both scientific and popular literature, he is most recently co-author of When Brains Dream: The Science and Mystery of Sleep.
✦ Elizaveta Solomonova is a postdoctoral fellow in Psychiatry at McGill University and member of the Culture, Mind and Brain research group. Her interdisciplinary work considers consciousness and experience across wake-sleep states, with an interest in dreaming, empathy and intersubjectivity. Her recent work includes the impact of the COVID pandemic on sleep.
Moderator Claudia Picard-Deland is a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at the Université de Montréal, working in the Sleep and Nightmare Lab at Montréal’s Sacré-Coeur Hospital. Her research interests include dreaming and memory consolidation; nightmares; sleep during the pandemic; and the effects of VR simulation on dreaming.
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The Sleep Salons are curated by Josh Dittrich (Postdoctoral Fellow, Université de Montréal), Aleksandra Kaminska (Associate Professor, Université de Montréal), and Alanna Thain (Associate Professor, McGill University). They are part of a year-long series:
Salon 1: The Social Lives of Sleep, ft. M. Wolf-Meyer & C. Alcántara: September 29
Salon 2: The Future of (the History of) Sleep, ft. K. Kroker & B. Reiss: October 13
Salon 3: Traumatic Sleep, ft. F. Nudelman & J. Blanc: November 17
Salon 4: Controlling Dreams, ft. A. Zadra & E. Solomonava: December 8
The Sociability of Sleep is two-year research program that explores both everyday and exceptional experiences of sleep and its disturbances. Launching our programming this Fall are the Sleep Salons, monthly public sessions featuring scholars, artists, and researchers on sleep, showcasing innovative research though conversations that examine how we learn and know about sleep, and that question and expand the methodologies, epistemologies, and equities of sleep knowledge. Exploring the value of sleep research in art and design, humanities, and social sciences, and taking experiential, experimental, critical, and sociable approaches to sleep, each monthly Salon pairs short talks (ca. 25 minutes) from two featured speakers to generate interdisciplinary insights in the ensuing discussion about the sociability of sleep.
The Sociability of Sleep and its Sleep Salons are supported by funding from the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF).