Darwin Bicentennial Series Continues
STAFF REPORTS •
updated January 9, 2009
BOONE – Appalachian State University continues its event-packed celebration of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, "On the Origin of Species," during the spring semester of the 2008-09 academic year with a series of lectures, films, music, art and theatre events focusing on Darwin’s ideas and their impact on society, and his theory of evolution.
The presentations are sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs, University College, College of Arts and Sciences, University Forum Committee, and the Darwin Bicentennial Celebration Committee. Additional support for the series has been provided by the Joan Askew Vail Distinguished Lectureship Endowment and the Morgan Lecture Series in the Sciences.
LECTURES:
Edward Larson will present a lecture titled “The Scopes Trial in History and the Theatre” at 8 p.m. Jan. 22 in Farthing Auditorium. Larson holds the Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law and is University Professor of History at Pepperdine University and recipient of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History. He served as Associate Counsel for the U.S. Congressional Committee on Education and Labor (1983-87) and as an attorney with a major Seattle law firm (1979-83) and retains an appointment at the University of Georgia, where he has taught since 1987.
Michael Ruse will present “Darwin at Two Hundred Years Old: Does He Still Speak to Us?” at 8 p.m. Feb. 2 in Farthing Auditorium. Ruse is the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Florida State University and the foremost philosophical scholar on the relationship between evolution and science. He is the author of Can a Darwinian Be a Christian?
On Feb. 10, Jim Costa, director of the Highlands Biological Station at Western Carolina University, will discuss “Charles Darwin and the Origin of the Origin.” The talk is scheduled for 8 p.m. in the Broyhill Inn’s Powers Grand Hall. Costa is a noted Darwin scholar and evolutionary ecologist, as well as author of a soon-to-be-released "Darwin Line by Line: The Living Origin," an annotated version of On the Origin of Species. He will discuss how Darwin came to write the Origin.
Sean Carroll presents “Into the Jungle: The Epic Search for the Origins of Species and the Discoveries that Forged a Revolution” at 8 p.m. Feb. 24 in Farthing Auditorium. Carroll is a professor of molecular biology, genetics, and medical genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Researcher. He is the author of several popular books on evolution, including the upcoming Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Specie. Carroll will be host of a PBS “NOVA” special about Darwin and evolution, which will be shown nationally this spring. Carroll is the speaker for this year’s Morgan Distinguished Lecture Series in the Sciences.
Paul Ewald from the University of Louisville’s Department of Biology will present a lecture at 8 p.m. March 17 in the Broyhill Inn’s Powers Grand Hall. His presentation is entitled “Darwinian Insights into the Causes and Prevention of Cancer.” Ewald is noted for his theories regarding the co-evolution of humans and disease organisms. He argues in his book Plague Time that many diseases attributed to environmental stresses may actually be caused by bacteria or viruses instead.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jonathan Weiner will speak on “The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time” at 8 p.m. March 26 in the Blue Ridge Ballroom of Plemmons Student Union. Weiner is a professor in Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. His Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Beak of the Finch, profiled the research of the husband/wife team Peter and Rosemary Grant as they carried out extensive studies of evolution on Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos Islands.
Elisabeth Lloyd from Indiana University’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science will present the lecture “Darwinian Evolution and the Female Orgasm: Explanations and Puzzles” at 8 p.m. April 2 in the Blue Ridge Ballroom of Plemmons Student Union. Lloyd is a leading historian and philosopher of science and author of several books on these subjects.
Niles Eldredge, curator at the American Museum of Natural History, will speak on “Darwin, the Beagle and the Origin of Modern Evolutionary Biology” at 8 p.m. April 6 in Farthing Auditorium. Eldredge, along with his colleague, the late Stephen J. Gould, co-authored the seminal paper on punctuated equilibrium which emphasized that evolutionary change was not constant through time. He is also author of more than a dozen scientific books for the public, including Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life, a new analysis of how Darwin came to write On the Origin, based largely on Darwin’s original notes and writings.
All lectures are free and open to the public.
