Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Taubman Center

Lunch Lecture: Patrick Sharkey presents "The Effect of Community Violence on Children's Cognitive Functioning and Academic Performance"

Monday, February 4, 2013

12 p.m. – 1 p.m.

Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, Seminar Room

Patrick Sharkey, PPAI '00, presents "The Effect of Community Violence on Children's Cognitive Functioning and Academic Performance." How does living in a violent environment "get into the minds" of children to affect them as they engage in daily life at home and in school?

Sharkey will discuss his new methods to identify the causal effect of exposure to incidents of extreme violence in children's neighborhoods. His research examines how violence affects children's cognitive functioning, their ability to maintain attention and control impulses, and their performance in school.

Sharkey is the author of the forthcoming book Stuck in Place: Urban Neighborhoods and the End of Progress Toward Racial Equality (The University of Chicago Press). He is Assistant Professor of Sociology, New York University. Sharkey holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy from Harvard University and a B.A. in Public Policy and American Institutions from Brown University.