Science of the Mind
This unique Summer Abroad program will be taught by three University of Bologna faculty members with expertise in each key area of the course. A UC Davis faculty member will provide oversight and act as the faculty of record.
William Rayo
Faculty of Record, UC Davis
Department of Psychology
William Rayo is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Psychology at UC Davis. His goal as an educator is to design educational experiences that give students the tools and space to think critically, analyze carefully, and reflect on how they learn, skills he hopes will stick with them long after the class ends. His teaching and research focus on how learners mentally represent knowledge, and on how instruction can be adapted to individual differences among students. He's also drawn to questions of how bilingual and bicultural individuals navigate moving between environments with different cultural and linguistic demands.
Elisa Ciaramelli
Lead Instructor, University of Bologna
Department of Psychology
Dr. Elisa Ciaramelli is an Associate Professor of Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience at the Department of Psychology of the University of Bologna. Her main research interest is the episodic memory system, and how this system supports planning, decision making, and spontaneous cognition. She is also interested in the rehabilitation of memory in brain-injured populations. Passionate about cross-cultural exchange and internationalization, she is looking forward to teaching the Science of the Mind program!
A Message to Students and Parents
Culture plays a critical role in shaping how we think about the world around us, often in ways we don't notice until we step outside the one we grew up in. So much of what feels like simply "the way things are" turns out to be a set of expectations we absorbed without ever really choosing them, and being immersed in another culture, even for a short time, has a way of bringing those assumptions into view. You start to understand your own habits of thought more clearly, precisely because you're surrounded by people whose perspectives were forged through a different set of experiences.
As a psychologist, I'm fascinated by how people build a picture of the world in their minds. I grew up between two cultures, splitting my time growing up between the United States and Colombia. I learned that you understand each place better when you can see it informed by the other, a way of thinking neither one could have given me on its own. It's a big part of why I'm excited to take part in this program, to help you make the most of seeing the world through a new lens."