James Costa will serve as the next lecturer in the Darwin
Bicentennial Series, Appalachian State University’s celebration
of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth.
Costa’s lecture, titled “Charles Darwin and the Origin
of the Origin,” is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 8 p.m.
in Powers Hall of the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center on the
campus of Appalachian State University. The lecture is free and
open to the public.
Earlier that same day, from 2 to 3:30pm, there will be a panel
discussion on the impacts on society and science of Charles Darwin
and his Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. The panel will
be composed of Appalachian State University faculty members who
are involved in evolutionary research and are interested in the
history of science. The discussion will take place in the Blue
Ridge Ballroom at the Plemmons Student Union.
Panel members consist of moderator Howie Neufeld (Biology) and
Johnny Waters (Geology), James Costa (the featured Darwin lecturer
that evening), David Reid (History), Lynn Siefferman (Biology),
Ted Zerucha (Biology), Andy Heckert (Geology) and Gwen Robbins
(Anthropology).
Participants are invited to ask questions of panel members, and
after the panel discussion, a celebration of Darwin’s 200th
birthday featuring evolutionary refreshments (a Darwin cake and
Galapagos punch) is scheduled.
James Costa is Professor of Biology at Western Carolina University
in Cullowhee and executive director of the Highlands Biological
Station in Highlands. A native of New York State, Costa earned
an M.S. in insect community ecology and a Ph.D. in population
genetics from the University of Georgia.
He was then appointed NSF-Sloan Postdoctoral Fellow in Molecular
Evolution at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, where
he remains a museum research associate. He has been a member of
WCU’s biology faculty since 1996, and took the reins at Highlands
Biological Station in 2005.
Costa’s teaching and research interests are varied. Over
the years he has taught genetics, forensic biology, biogeography,
entomology and a popular course on Darwin’s Origin of Species.
In connection with the latter, Costa now teaches the “Origin”
as part of an annual Harvard summer course on Darwin and evolution
at the University of Oxford, England.
Costa has also co-taught field courses in Hawaii and the desert
Southwest and teaches an insect behavior course at Highlands Biological
Station. His research lies in the area of insect behavior and
population biology, with a focus on group-living (social) caterpillars
and similar insects. His field work has ranged from the southern
Appalachians to the Neotropics, but in the 2004-05 academic year,
he spent more time in libraries than the field. He returned to
Harvard for a sabbatical year as a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute
for Advanced Study to complete his insect social behavior book
The Other Insect Societies, published in 2006 by Harvard
University Press. He is currently at work on his second book,
a reader’s guide to the “Origin,” entitled Darwin
Line By Line: Darwin’s Origin of Species, annotated by James
T. Costa, forthcoming from Harvard in early 2009.
Lectures presented as part of the Darwin Bicentennial Series are
sponsored by the University Forum Committee, the Division of Academic
Affairs, University College, the Darwin Bicentennial Celebration
Committee and the College of Arts and Sciences. Additional support
for the series has been provided by the Joan Askew Vail Distinguished
Lectureship Endowment and the Morgan Lecture Series in the Sciences.
Additional details may be obtained at www.universityforum.appstate.edu
or by calling the university’s Office of Academic Affairs
at (828) 262-7660.
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