ESP Biography



KARI LEIBOWITZ, Stanford 1st year PhD Student in Social Psychology



Major: Social Psychology

College/Employer: Stanford

Year of Graduation: 2020

Picture of Kari Leibowitz

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Kari began her PhD in Social Psychology in 2015. She is interested in understanding how best to promote mindsets that increase psychosocial well-being, with a particular emphasis on understanding compassionate mindsets in various populations. Kari received her BA from Emory University in 2012. After graduation, Kari spent two years as the Program Coordinator for the Emory-Tibet Partnership and coordinated the visit of the Dalai Lama to Emory in 2013. During this time, she also spent 4 summers teaching Emory's Tibetan Mind/Body Sciences course in Dharamsala, India. Kari also spent a year studying wintertime mindset above the Arctic Circle in Norway under a Fulbright research grant. A few of Kari’s favorite things are rainy days, brunch, and taking naps.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S4539: Milkshakes & Meditation: From Mindsets to Mindfulness in Splash Fall 2015 (Nov. 07 - 08, 2015)
This is a crash course in the science of “mind over matter.” Drawing from exciting research in psychology, medicine, biology, and sociology we will discuss how mindsets - the beliefs, expectations, and assumptions that we hold - can help our bodies heal, reduce the negative outcomes of stress, and help us to lead healthier lives. We’ll also be giving an overview of “mindfulness,” or the practice of training our attention, which has been shown to help us feel calmer, connect more with others, and focus better on our homework! Students will have an opportunity to try out a mindfulness practice and share their own ideas about the effects of mindset in our everyday lives.


B4689: Mind and Body: How Your Mind Makes It Real in Splash Fall 2015 (Nov. 07 - 08, 2015)
Can a sugar-pill cause morphine release? Can hypnosis cure blindness? Can looks kill (literally)? Can getting shot not hurt? We'll talk about old history and new science developing around "mind-body" medicine, how your mind and brain affect your body in really interesting ways. We'll meet people with paralysis who can regain their movement, and blind people can regain their sight by the power of words. We'll see how the brain can produce pain completely independently of any "physical" cause. We'll discuss theories of how the brain might be involved in diseases like fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome. If that's not enough, you'll learn about ritual executions that rely on the victim's expectation, and soldiers in WWII who get shot but don't seem to mind. In short, we'll explore the strange and perplexing frontier where Mind meets Body. [For those who took this already, I am adding a number of slides on the science of placebo, too!]