Lectures, performances, films run
through spring
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.
Edward Larson will deliver
a lecture on the Scopes Monkey Trial on Jan. 22. Photo
submitted |
ASU will host a screening
of Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design
Circus on Jan. 25. |
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” on Thursday, Jan. 22,
at 8 p.m. 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.
The author of seven books and more than 100 published articles,
Larson writes mostly about issues of science, medicine and law
from an historical perspective. His books include A Magnificent
Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s
First Presidential Campaign (2007); Evolution: The Remarkable
History of a Scientific Theory (2005, 2006 rev. ed.); Evolution’s
Workshop: God and Science in the Galapagos Islands (2001), Sex,
Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South (1995), Trial
and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution
(1985, 2003 rev. ed.) and the Pulitzer Prize winning Summer
for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing
Debate Over Science and Religion (1997).
His articles have appeared in such varied journals as Nature,
Atlantic Monthly, Time, Science, Scientific American, The Nation,
The Wilson Quarterly, Virginia Law Review and Isis. He is the
co-author or co-editor of seven additional books, including
The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the
Notes of James Madison (2005). The Fulbright Program named Larson
to the John Adams Chair in American Studies for 2001 and he
participated in the National Science Foundation’s 2003-04
Antarctic Artists and Writers Program.
Michael Ruse will present “Darwin at Two Hundred Years
Old: Does He Still Speak to Us?” Monday, Feb. 2, at 8 p.m.
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 Tuesday, 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” Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m. 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 Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at
8 p.m. 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”
Thursday, March 26, at 8 p.m., 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”
Thursday, April 2, at 8 p.m., 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” Monday, April 6, at 8 p.m. 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. Theatre, Music
and Art Presentations
The Performing Arts Series Presents “The Great Tennessee
Monkey Trial”
Wednesday, Feb. 11, 8 p.m.
Farthing Auditorium
This radio play from LA Theatre Works, starring Emmy Award-winning
actor Ed Asner and the cast of the LA Theatre Works Radio Theater,
features characters who stand are at the center of one of the
great debates of American society, come to life in this magnificent,
semi-staged production.
Based on the original transcripts of the 1925 Scopes Trial,
which championed the right to teach evolution in the public
schools, the play features such unlikely heroes as Clarence
Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, H.L. Mencken and John Scopes,
who set the stage for an ongoing national debate over the separation
of church and state in a democratic society.
For tickets, call (828) 262-4046 or (800) 841-2787.Department
of Theatre & Dance Presents the Trial Scene from “Inherit
the Wind” and More
Feb. 12-14, 19-21, 7 p.m.
I.G. Greer Studio Theater
Darwin’s theory of evolution created a firestorm of controversy,
and its dramatic and comic possibilities were quickly adapted
to the stage. The production will include three sections. Part
I includes examples of early 1920s vaudeville’s response
to Darwin in satiric and comic songs and sketches. Part II is
the famous courtroom scene from Jerome Lawrence and Robert E.
Lee’s 1950s play, Inherit the Wind. Part III looks at Darwin
in contemporary theatrical terms.
For tickets, call (828) 262-3063Juried Art Competition sponsored
by the Department of Art
February
Looking Glass Gallery, Plemmons Student Union
The ASU Art Department will sponsor a juried student competition
of art work devoted to any aspect of evolution. Works will be
judged by a committee comprised of art faculty members and will
be displayed at the Looking Glass Gallery during the month of
February. The exhibition is free and open to the public. For
details, call (828) 262-2220.Juried Music Competition by the
Hayes School of Music
Wednesday, Feb. 25 8 p.m.
Rosen Concert Hall, Broyhill Music Center
Composition/theory majors in the Hayes School of Music will
participate in a Darwin Composition Competition. Students will
write original compositions that are inspired by Darwin and
his theory of evolution. There will be one winner and two runners-up
and all of the compositions will be performed in a chamber music
recital, which is free and open to the public. For details,
call (828) 262-3020. The Evolution Film Series
Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus
Sunday, Jan. 25
Introduced by Robert Creed, Department of Biology
A wacky, satirical look at both sides of the Evolution/Intelligent
Design conflict; filmmaker Randy Olson takes no prisoners in
this Michael Mooresque documentary.Expelled: No Intelligence
Allowed
Sunday, Feb. 15
Hosted by James Wilkes, Department of Computer Science
Ben Stein blows the whistle on “Big Science” and its
suppression of ideas that challenge Darwinian theories of evolution.
Is it a crime to believe in Intelligent Design?2001: A Space
Odyssey
Sunday, April 19
Hosted by Roger Stilling, Department of English
Forget natural selection of Intelligent Design; it’s a
giant, enigmatic black monolith that jump-starts evolution in
animals and humans. What if that monolith returned in our science-fiction
future…?All films will be screened in the Greenbriar Theatre
of Plemmons Student Union at 7 p.m. and are free and open to
the public.
Additional details on any of the events described above may
be obtained at www.universityforum.appstate.edu or by calling
the Office of Academic Affairs at (828) 262-7660.
Get Firefox