Karen Stollznow | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Australian |
Alma mater | University of New England |
Known for | Writing, Linguistics, Podcasting, Skepticism of the paranormal, Research Fellow for JREF [1] and CSI [2] |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Linguistics |
Institutions | San Francisco State University University of California, Berkeley [3] University of New England Cal Poly Metropolitan State College of Denver Griffith University |
Website | http://www.karenstollznow.com |
Karen Stollznow (born 12 August 1976[ citation needed ]) is an Australian-American author, linguist, public speaker, and podcaster. Her books include Bitch: The Journey of a Word, Missed Conceptions: How We Make Sense of Infertility, On the Offensive: Prejudice in Language Past and Present, The Language of Discrimination, [4] God Bless America: Strange and Unusual Religious Beliefs and Practices in the United States, [5] [6] Haunting America, [7] Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic, [8] Hits and Mrs, [9] and Would You Believe It?: Mysterious Tales From People You'd Least Expect. [10] Stollznow also writes short fiction, including the title Fisher's Ghost and Other Stories, and she is a host on the podcast Monster Talk with Blake Smith. She has written for many popular publications, including The Conversation and Psychology Today. Stollznow has also appeared as an expert on many TV shows, including the History Channel's History's Greatest Mysteries and Netflix's Files of the Unexplained.
A student of linguistics and history at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, she received First Class Honors in Linguistics, [11] and went on to a PhD in the area of Lexical Semantics. She graduated with her doctorate in 2007. [12] In 2004, she relocated to California to become a Visiting Student Researcher with the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2005, she became a Researcher for the Script Encoding Initiative, a joint project between the UC Berkeley Department of Linguistics, and the Unicode Consortium. [3] She is currently a researcher in the Department of Linguistics at Griffith University and also affiliated with the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. [13]
From 1997 to 2009, Stollznow was a prominent investigator and writer for the Australian Skeptics [14] and served as Editor of their magazine The Skeptic [15] [16] for which she also wrote many articles. [17] [18] [19] She has also written for publications such as Australasian Science , [20] [21] [22] Neucleus , [23] [24] Skeptical Inquirer , [25] [26] [27] and others. [28]
Between 2009 and 2011 she wrote the Naked Skeptic column for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), [29] now rebranded as The Good Word for Skeptical Inquirer. [30] In 2010 she began as the Bad Language columnist for Skeptic. [31] [32] [33] She has been a host of the Skeptics Society's MonsterTalk podcast [34] since its beginning in 2009 [35] and in 2010 she became a host of the Center for Inquiry's Point of Inquiry podcast as well. [36] In 2011 she presented a talk at the Colorado Springs SkeptiCamp on Making (Up) History, [37] and at the Denver/Boulder SkeptiCamp on Braco the Gazer. [38] In 2012 she was a speaker at The Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas, giving a talk titled "Prediction and Language", [39] and in 2013 giving a talk titled "What an Excellent Day for an Exorcism". [40]
Stollznow was also a Research Fellow for the James Randi Educational Foundation. [1] [41] She is a Contributing Editor for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. [2]
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Stollznow is an expatriate Australian and formerly lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Born in the Sydney suburb of Manly, she grew up in Collaroy, on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.[ citation needed ]
Stollznow lives with her husband Matthew Baxter and their son in Denver, Colorado. [42]
James Randi was a Canadian-American stage magician, author, and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. He was the co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi began his career as a magician under the stage name The Amazing Randi and later chose to devote most of his time to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims. Randi retired from practicing magic at age 60, and from his foundation at 87.
The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) is an American grant-making institution founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. As a nonprofit organization, the mission of JREF includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of accepting unproven claims, and to support research into paranormal claims in controlled scientific experimental conditions. The organization announced its change to a grant-making foundation in September 2015.
Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism, sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refers to the examination of claims and theories that appear to be beyond mainstream science, rather than the routine discussions and challenges among scientists. Scientific skepticism differs from philosophical skepticism, which questions humans' ability to claim any knowledge about the nature of the world and how they perceive it, and the similar but distinct methodological skepticism, which is a systematic process of being skeptical about the truth of one's beliefs.
Ray Hyman is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, and a noted critic of parapsychology. Hyman, along with James Randi, Martin Gardner and Paul Kurtz, is one of the founders of the modern skeptical movement. He is the founder and leader of the Skeptic's Toolbox. Hyman serves on the Executive Council for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
The Skeptics Society is a nonprofit, member-supported organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs. The Skeptics Society was co-founded by Michael Shermer and Pat Linse as a Los Angeles-area skeptical group to replace the defunct Southern California Skeptics. After the success of its Skeptic magazine, introduced in early 1992, it became a national and then international organization. Their stated mission "is the investigation of science and pseudoscience controversies, and the promotion of critical thinking."
Skeptic, colloquially known as Skeptic magazine, is a quarterly science education and science advocacy magazine published internationally by The Skeptics Society, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs. First published in 1992, the magazine had a circulation of over 40,000 subscribers in 2000.
Robert Todd Carroll was an American author, philosopher and academic, best known for The Skeptic's Dictionary. He described himself as a naturalist, an atheist, a materialist, a metaphysical libertarian, and a positivist. In 2010 he was elected a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He was a professor of philosophy at Sacramento City College from 1977 until his retirement in 2007.
The Amazing Meeting (TAM), stylized as The Amaz!ng Meeting, was an annual conference that focused on science, skepticism, and critical thinking; it was held for twelve years. The conference started in 2003 and was sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Perennial speakers included Penn & Teller, Phil Plait, Michael Shermer and James "The Amazing" Randi. Speakers at the four-day conference were selected from a variety of disciplines including scientific educators, magicians, and community activists. Outside the plenary sessions the conference included workshops, additional panel discussions, music and magic performances and live taping of podcasts including The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. The final Amazing Meeting was held in July 2015.
Douglas James Grothe is an American skeptic who has served in leadership roles for both the Center for Inquiry (CFI) and the James Randi Educational Foundation. While he was at CFI, he hosted their Point of Inquiry podcast. After leaving Point of Inquiry he hosted the radio show and podcast For Good Reason. He is particularly interested in the psychology of belief and the steps involved in deception and self-deception. His writing has been published by both Skeptical Inquirer magazine and The Huffington Post. He also co-edited On the Beauty of Science, about the worldview and life's work of the Nobel laureate Herbert Hauptman.
Banachek is an English mentalist, magician, and "thought reader".
Skeptics in the Pub is an informal social event designed to promote fellowship and social networking among skeptics, critical thinkers, freethinkers, rationalists and other like-minded individuals. It provides an opportunity for skeptics to talk, share ideas and have fun in a casual atmosphere, and discuss whatever topical issues come to mind, while promoting skepticism, science, and rationality.
The 10:23 Campaign (stylized as 1023) is an awareness and protest campaign against homoeopathy organised by the Merseyside Skeptics Society, a non-profit organisation, to oppose the sale of homoeopathic products in the United Kingdom. The campaign has staged public "overdoses" of homoeopathic preparations.
Kylie Sturgess is a past President of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, an award-winning blogger, author and independent podcast host of The Token Skeptic Podcast. A Philosophy and Religious Education teacher with over ten years experience in education, Sturgess has lectured on teaching critical thinking, feminism, new media and anomalistic beliefs worldwide. She is a Member of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) Education Advisory Panel and regularly writes editorial for numerous publications, and has spoken at The Amazing Meeting Las Vegas, Dragon*Con (US), QED Con (UK). She was a presenter and Master of Ceremonies for the 2010 Global Atheist Convention and returned to the role in 2012. Her most recent book The Scope of Skepticism was released in 2012. She is a presenter at Perth's community radio station RTRFM, and a winner at the 2018 CBAA Community Radio Awards in the category of Talks, with the show Talk the Talk In 2020 she was in the final eight in the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Asia-Pacific virtual showcase.
Desiree Schell is the host of the live Canadian call-in radio talk show and podcast, "Science for the People". An advocate for scientific skepticism, Schell is a strong advocate of critical thinking and is strongly interested in the promotion of skepticism publicly. In her work as a labour organizer Schell creates curricula and teaches courses on effective activism, drawing on the experience of other social movements.
MonsterTalk is an audio podcast originally presented by the Skeptics Society's Skeptic magazine but broke ties in 2019. Since 2019 it has been an independent podcast under the "Monster House, LLC" banner. The show critically examines the science behind cryptozoological creatures, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and werewolves. It is hosted by Blake Smith and Karen Stollznow, and produced by Blake Smith. In 2012, MonsterTalk was awarded the Parsec Award for the "Best Fact Behind the Fiction Podcast".
SkeptiCamp was founded by Reed Esau in 2007 and is small grassroots conference where scientific skeptics come together and participate and present. Skepticamps are held in varying formats worldwide and are operated in the style of an unconference.
Timothy Patrick Farley is a computer software engineer, writer and instructor who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He is an expert in computer security and reverse engineering as well as a skeptic. He was a research fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation. Tim Farley is the creator of the website What's The Harm?, a resource where stories are documented and categorized about the damage done when people fail to use critical thinking skills. Farley was also instrumental in the apprehension of spammer "David Mabus."
Susan Gerbic is an American studio photographer who became known as a scientific skepticism activist, mostly for exposing people claiming to be mediums. A columnist for Skeptical Inquirer, she is the co-founder of Monterey County Skeptics and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
CSICon or CSIConference is an annual skeptical conference typically held in the United States. CSICon is hosted by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), which is a program of the Center for Inquiry (CFI). CSI publishes the magazine Skeptical Inquirer.