Casey Fellows Speaker Series: The Science of Connection with Dr. Niobe Way

Date: Tuesday, November 26th 2024 

Time: 5:30 p.m. reception | 6:30 p.m. presentation

Location: Weston Hall, Prep School 

Join UCC Casey Fellow Dr. Niobe Way for a compelling talk grounded in discoveries from her book Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection (Harvard University Press). Dr. Way is a professor of developmental psychology at NYU and acclaimed author whose expertise is in social and emotional development. 

Drawing from hundreds of interviews with adolescents, Deep Secrets reveals the ways in which we have been telling ourselves a false story about boys, friendships, and human nature. Boys in fact do share their deepest secrets and feelings with their closest male friends — but as they become older, they can become distrustful, lose these friendships, and feel isolated and alone. 

Given what we know about links between friendships and health, this is an urgently relevant topic in the wellbeing sphere. Don't miss the chance to hear from Dr. Way, including her insights into fostering these critical relationships as well as fundamental human skills.

About Dr. Niobe Way

Internationally recognized NYU developmental psychologist Dr. Niobe Way has spent nearly 40 years conducting empirical studies with teenagers, particularly boys and young men from diverse backgrounds. Her social science research, which focuses on social and emotional development and how cultural ideologies shape child development, has made her a go-to expert on friendships, loneliness, teenagers, gender stereotypes, masculinity, and the roots of violence. In her pioneering new book, Rebels with a Cause: Reimagining Boys, Ourselves, and Our  Culture (Dutton | July 9, 2024), Way draws a direct line from her subjects’ insights — and suffering — to a much wider crisis that is impacting us all, but is in our power to change.   Rates of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicide are soaring, particularly among young people. Mass violence seems almost commonplace, and virtually all of it is committed by young men between the ages of 18 and 25. Experts across fields are pointing fingers at various causes and surefire remedies. But as Way reveals in Rebels with a Cause, if we listen with curiosity to what boys and young men have to say, we learn that these are all symptoms of a crisis of connection caused by a culture that prizes the hard over the soft, thinking over feeling, the me over we, stoicism over vulnerability, when our humanity is rooted. This “boy” culture — so-called because it is based on a caricature of a boy, not because it accurately reflects them — is killing our boys and harming us all.

Dr. Niobe Way is a Professor of Developmental Psychology at NYU, the founder of the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity (PACH), co-founder of agapi.teens, and the PI on the Listening Project. Dr. Way was the President of the Society for Research on Adolescence, received her B.A. from U.C. Berkeley, her doctoral degree from Harvard, and was an NIMH postdoctoral fellow at Yale in the psychology department.

About UCC’s Casey Fellows Program

Launched in 2018, The Casey Fellows Program for Mental Health and Student Wellbeing brings world-renowned experts in the field of wellbeing to Upper Canada College, and is made possible by the generosity of Matthew Casey ’83. 

By attending this event, you agree to adhere to the UCC Community Code of Conduct and provide your consent to be photographed and/or filmed. Please email association@ucc.on.ca with any questions.