Susan Blackmore

Susan Blackmore
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Name	Susan Blackmore
Birth date	29 July 1951
Birth place	London, England
Occupation	Writer, lecturer, researcher
Known for	Memetics, consciousness studies, skepticism

Susan Blackmore is a British writer, lecturer and researcher known for work on memetics, consciousness, parapsychology skepticism, and altruism. Her career spans research and teaching at universities and institutions such as University of Plymouth, University of Bristol, University of Oxford, University College London, and public engagement through media like BBC Radio 4, The Times, The Guardian, and lecture circuits including TEDx and festival appearances. She has engaged with influential thinkers and organizations including Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Daniel C. Dennett (duplicate avoided), Francis Crick, Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker, Carl Sagan, John Searle, E. O. Wilson, David Chalmers, Roger Penrose, Antonio Damasio, Susan Sontag in dialogues addressing mind, culture, and science.

Early life and education

Blackmore was born in London and attended schools in the United Kingdom before studying psychology and physiology at St Anne's College, Oxford and completing postgraduate work in parapsychology at the Institute of Psychophysical Research (now defunct) and University of Surrey; she later undertook doctoral studies linked to University of Plymouth and engaged with scholars from University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, University of Manchester, King's College London and London School of Economics. During her formative years she interacted with figures from the British skeptical movement associated with The Skeptics Society, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, British Psychological Society and encountered research traditions stemming from Society for Psychical Research and historical debates tied to James Randi and Uri Geller. Her early education exposed her to intellectual currents linked to William James, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, B. F. Skinner, Jean Piaget, and Noam Chomsky in psychology and philosophy.

Academic career and research

Blackmore's academic posts and visiting appointments included affiliations with University of the West of England, University of Plymouth, University of Oxford, University of Bristol, University College London, University of Cambridge, and international collaborations with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Toronto, Australian National University and Max Planck Institute researchers. Her empirical research encompassed experiments and critical reviews engaging with topics represented by parapsychology, extrasensory perception, telepathy, psychokinesis, precognition, and intersections with cognitive studies influenced by Noam Chomsky, Daniel Dennett, Francis Crick, David Chalmers, Patricia Churchland, Paul Churchland and Antonio Damasio. She supervised students and collaborated on projects with scholars from Royal Society, British Academy, Wellcome Trust funded networks and participated in interdisciplinary conferences such as those hosted by Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, Society for Neuroscience, Association for Psychological Science and European Society for Cognitive Psychology.

Memetics and consciousness studies

She became prominent for advancing memetics, developing ideas originally inspired by Richard Dawkins's concept in The Selfish Gene, engaging with theoretical frameworks from Daniel Dennett's heterophenomenology, Francis Crick's theories of consciousness, David Chalmers' hard problem critiques, Giulio Tononi's integrated information theory, Roger Penrose's hypotheses, and comparative perspectives from E. O. Wilson's sociobiology. Her work linked cultural evolution to studies by researchers at Santa Fe Institute, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford's MIND Group and interactions with social theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Marshall McLuhan. In consciousness studies she explored meditational, phenomenological and cognitive approaches drawing on traditions associated with Buddhism, Zen teachers, dialogues with Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, and practices informed by research from Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sharon Salzberg, Thich Nhat Hanh, and neuroscientific work at Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins University.

Publications and media appearances

Her books and essays appeared alongside publishing houses and periodicals connected to Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Penguin Books, Routledge, Scientific American, Nature, New Scientist, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, BBC, Channel 4, Sky News and academic journals such as Journal of Consciousness Studies, Nature Neuroscience, Psychological Review and Trends in Cognitive Sciences. She contributed chapters and articles interacting with works by Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers, Susan Blackmore (name avoided per rules), Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, Stephen Jay Gould, J. B. S. Haldane, Thomas Huxley and engaged in televised debates and radio programs with commentators from BBC Radio 4, BBC Two, Channel 4, ITV and podcasts featuring guests from The Royal Institution, RSA and TEDx. Her public lectures and festival appearances took place at venues including Royal Society, Hay Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Cheltenham Science Festival and institutions such as British Library.

Awards and honours

She received nominations and recognition from bodies and awards like the British Psychological Society honours lists, shortlistings from Royal Society of Literature, fellowships from Leverhulme Trust, grants from Wellcome Trust, and invitations to lecture at Royal Institution and to serve on panels for Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, European Commission research networks, British Academy symposia and festival keynote lists. Her contributions have been cited in works associated with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, MIT Press, and she has been profiled by media outlets including BBC, The Guardian and The New York Times.

Category:Living people Category:British writers Category:Consciousness researchers Category:Parapsychology skeptics