AAI Speaker Series With Howard Wainer
LAWRENCE — The Achievement & Assessment Institute (AAI) is pleased to relaunch the AAI Speaker Series, featuring noted individuals in the fields of assessment, statistics, education, and more. Presenters will offer talks appealing to many disciplines of study, with events occurring on the University of Kansas campus.
“We hope the series creates dialogues and inspires students, researchers, and educators of all kinds,” said Neal Kingston, AAI Director and University Distinguished Professor.
“As with much of our outreach work, through this series we seek to build bridges across different sciences and arts.”
Exemplifying this guiding philosophy, AAI has tapped noted author and statistician Howard Wainer to deliver two talks on November 15. Wainer is the recipient of numerous academic awards and honors, and is the author of nearly 25 books, with hundreds of articles and book chapters to his name.
His most recent book, co-authored with Michael Friendly, is A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication (Harvard University Press, 2021) and provides “a comprehensive history of data visualization—its origins, rise, and effects on the ways we think about and solve problems.” Before this, Wainer published Truth or Truthiness: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction by Learning to Think Like a Data Scientist (Cambridge University Press, 2016), which was listed in the top six books of the year by the Financial Times of London.
The talks Wainer will give are entitled Civis, Smartphones, and Score Report: How Effective Communication Requires the Same Qualities of Being an Effective Citizen and Graphs as Poetry: C.J. Minard, W.E.B. Du Bois and Visualizing the Great Migration. Both talks draw on Wainer’s recent work. The presentations will take place on November 15, with a small reception following the second event. Both will be offered in-person and via live-stream. Individuals interested in watching the stream are encouraged to register at this link.
Below find details on the individual talks.
Title:
Civis, Smartphones, and Score Reports
Abstract:
Effective communication requires the same qualities as does being an effective citizen. In this talk we will explore how to improve different kinds of written communications, ranging over score reports for mental tests, health reports from medical tests, and the outcomes of other deliberative processes. These will be illustrated with some very fine examples and some that are considerably less so.
Location:
Joseph R Pearson Hall, Room 201
1122 W Campus Rd, Lawrence, KS 66045
Date / Time:
November 15, 1:00 – 2:00 PM
Title:
Graphs as Poetry: C.J. Minard, W.E.B. Du Bois and Visualizing the Great Migration
Abstract:
Visual displays of empirical information are too often thought to be just compact summaries that, at their best, can clarify a muddled situation. This is partially true, as far as it goes, but it omits the magic. We have long known that data visualization is an alchemist that can make good scientists great and transform great scientists into giants. In this talk we will see that sometimes, albeit too rarely, the combination of critical questions addressed by important data and illuminated by evocative displays can achieve a transcendent, and often wholly unexpected, result. At their best, visualizations can communicate emotions and feelings in addition to cold, hard facts.
Location:
Joseph R Pearson Hall, Room 150
1122 W Campus Rd, Lawrence, KS 66045
Date / Time:
November 15, 3:00 – 4:00 PM