What Makes us Human?

Catherine Kling, Tisch University Professor of Environmental, Energy and Resource Economics, examines the social costs of water pollution, and how we should make choices about costly water treatment.

Kevin Kniffin,professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management within the SC Johnson College of Business, explores what influences whom we find attractive.

Andy Bass, professor of neurobiology and behavior, explores the biological basis of attraction.

Lucinda Ramberg, associate professor of anthropology and feminist, gender and sexuality studies, explores marriage between girls and a goddess in South India.

Masha Raskolnikov, Cornell associate professor of English, explains how the invention of courtly love helped prevent warfare in medieval Europe.

Vivian Zayas, associate professor of psychology at Cornell University, explores the behavioral, psychological, and neural components of love -- and its loss.

Marianne Krasny, professor in Cornell's Department of Natural Resources and Director of the Civic Ecology Lab in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, examines what motivates people to care for Earth’s creatures and its places.

Cornell Professor Kathryn LaTour explores why consumers feel love for certain products or brands. LaTour is the Banfi Vintners Professor of Wine Education and Management in the School of Hotel Administration, SC Johnson College of Business.

Durba Ghosh, professor of history and director of Cornell's Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, examines what love meant for colonial India’s mixed-race families.

Kim Haines-Eitzen, H. Stanley Krusen Professor of World Religions and director of the Religious Studies Program, explores the complex relationship between love, early Christianity, and contemporary wedding practice.