Symposium Takes Interdisciplinary Look at Darwin
Scholars from humanities, social and hard sciences come together
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. -- This year marks both the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, The Origin of Species.
To celebrate these events, Duke University’s Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) and the vice provost for interdisciplinary studies are co-sponsoring the conference “Darwin Across the Disciplines," on Thursday, Nov. 5 and Friday, Nov. 6. The symposium, to be held in the Rare Book Room at Duke’s Perkins Library, is free and open to the public.
The conference seeks to address the enterprise of interdisciplinary work by bringing diverse scholars together and using Darwin as a case to explore the limits of interdisciplinary conversations. Each session will feature a scholar from the humanities with a scholar from the social sciences or medical sciences.
“We want to put the questions that Darwin’s work asks into conversations between the disciplines rather than parceling them out. We plan to have an interdisciplinary conversation about Darwin among the humanities, social sciences and hard sciences,” says Duke English professor Ian Baucom, director of the FHI.
Nov. 5 panel discussions will cover topics including “Charles Darwin’s Pacific Project,” and “Behavioral Economics: How Language and Technologies Make Us Human.” The following day features discussions on the nature/culture divide and science and religion, and will culminate in a roundtable discussion “on being human.”
For a complete schedule and list of presenters, visit fhi.duke.edu or call (919) 668-1901.
