ORIGIN 150: DARWIN’S TEXTS, DARWINISM’S CONTEXTS

 

AR 399 E; HI 300 F; LS 501GB; LS 502 GB    

 

Tuesday-Thursday 4:00-5:15   HC 303

 

Instructors:

 

Marguerite Perret, Art (AR 110; office hours: Wed. 9-5; ext. 2022; marguerite.perret@washburn.edu)

                    

Thomas Prasch, History (HC 311 A; office hours: Mon.-Th. 12-1:30; ext. 1892; tom.prasch@washburn.edu)

 

 

 

Source: Darwin’s Notebook B (1837-38), p. 36, from http://darwin-online.org.uk
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The year 2009 marks the 150^th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (and Darwin’s own 200^th birthday), and there is no place better suited to commemorate Darwin’s breakthrough work on natural selection than in Kansas, where it has provoked so much recent controversy in the public schools. The course will study the works of Darwin, debate about his theory among his own contemporaries and ours, and the influence of his theory on science, society, literature, and the arts. The course will work in tandem with the Faculty Colloquium on the same topic (meeting on Tuesdays during most of the semester), in which students will be presented with a range of approaches to Darwin, his ideas, and his influence from presentations by Washburn professors from a range of disciplines. Students will thus gain an appreciation of the wide influence of Darwin’s work across the curriculum as well as a sense of what professors’ rough drafts look like. At semester’s conclusion, the tables will be turned, and students will offer their own research presentations; faculty participants in the colloquium will be invited to attend, to ask questions, and to continue the discussion.

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: The required text for the course is Philip Appleman, ed., Darwin: Norton Critical Edition, 3d ed. (note: earlier editions do NOT include all the materials we will be using for the course). That will be supplemented by additional readings available online. Particularly useful sites include the Online Darwin archive at http://darwin-online.org.uk ; the Darwin Correspondence Project, devoted to letters to and from Darwin, at http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk ; the Alfred Russel Wallace Page, collecting works by the co-discoverer of natural selection, at http://www.wku.edu~sithch/index1.htm ; the Thomas Huxley File, devoted to the man who came to be known as “Darwin’s bulldog,” at http://aleph0/clarku.edu/huxley ; the archive of Darwin cousin and eugenicist Francis Galton at http://www.galton.org ; and the collection of classic and contemporary works at the site devoted to the late (d. 2002) evolutionary thinker Stephen Jay Gould at http://www.stephenjaygould.org . Students will also be required to read the common readings and draft papers of the Faculty Colloquium.

 

For each reading assignment, including those associated with the Faculty Colloquium, students will prepare brief (one page) response papers, proposing questions to be raised in discussion (and proving, in the process, that they have read the assignment). Students will also be expected to complete a research paper or creative project of their own, presenting it in the scheduled times at the end of the semester. The final paper will be 10-15 pages for undergraduates, and at least 20 pages for students taking the course for graduate credit. Students will also be expected to participate in discussions throughout the semester. Equivalents for creative projects will be established in consultation with the instructors. Handouts will be provided to guide students in expectations for both response papers and research projects.

 

The final grade will be determined on the basis of 25% for response papers, 25% for participation, and 50% for the final project, with students taking the course for graduate credit held to a higher standard for each of those contributions.

 

 

UNIVERSITY ADDITIONS – COURSE SYLLABUS

Select Mission of the University:

Washburn University shall prepare qualified individuals for careers, further study and life long learning through excellence in teaching and scholarly work.  Washburn University shall make a special effort to help individuals reach their full academic potential.  Washburn University Board of Regents, 1999

Academic Misconduct Policy:

All students are expected to conduct themselves appropriately and ethically in their academic work.  Inappropriate and unethical behavior includes (but is not limited to) giving or receiving unauthorized aid on examinations or in the preparation of papers or other assignments, or knowingly misrepresenting the source of academic work.  Washburn University’s Academic Impropriety Policy describes academically unethical behavior in greater detail and explains the actions that may be taken when such behavior occurs.  For guidelines regarding protection of copyright, consult

www.washburn.edu/copyright/students. For a complete copy of the Academic Impropriety Policy, contact the office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center Suite 200, or go on-line to:  

www.washburn.edu/admin/vpaa/fachdbk/FHsec7.html#VIII

Disability Services:

The Student Services Office is responsible for assisting in arranging accommodations and for identifying resources on campus for persons with disabilities.  Qualified students with disabilities must register with the office to be eligible for services.  The office MUST have appropriate documentation on file in order to provide services.  Accommodations may include in-class note takers, test readers and/or scribes, adaptive computer technology, brailled materials.  Requests for accommodations should be submitted at least two months before services should begin; however, if you need an accommodation this semester, please contact the Student Services Office immediately.

Location:  Student Services, Morgan Hall Room 135  (new location)

Phone:  785-670-1629 or TDD 785-670-1025

E-Mail:  student-services@washburn.edu

Students may voluntarily identify themselves to the instructor for a referral to the Student Services Office.

Center for Undergraduate Studies and Programs (CUSP):

As a Washburn student, you may experience difficulty with issues such as studying, personal problems, time management, or choice of major, classes, or employment.  The Center for Undergraduate Studies and Programs (Office of Academic Advising , Educational Opportunity Program, and Office of Career Counseling, Testing and Assessment) is available to help students either directly through academic advising, mentoring, career counseling, testing and developing learning strategies or by identifying the appropriate University resource.  If you feel you need someone with whom to discuss an issue confidentially and free of charge, contact CUSP in Morgan 122, 785-670-2299, advising@washburn.edu. 

Withdrawal Policy:

During fall and spring semesters, students may withdraw from full semester courses through the second week of class with no recorded grade.  From the third through the eleventh week a “W” is recorded for any dropped course.  Beginning with the start of the twelfth week, there are NO withdrawals, and a grade will be assigned for the course.  For short-term or summer course deadlines, please check the appropriate Semester/Session Course Bulletin Web Site (www.washburn.edu/schedule)

Official E-Mail Address:

Your Washburn University e-mail address will be the official address used by the University for relaying important messages regarding academic and financial information and the University will consider this your official notification for important information.  It may also be used by your instructors to provide specific course information.  If you prefer to use an alternate e-mail address to receive official University notices, you can access your MyWashburn e-mail account, choose the "Options" tab, and select "Settings", scroll to the bottom of the screen, click enable forwarding and enter the e-mail address you would like your Washburn emails forwarded to in the “mail forwarding” area.  Click add and the click on save changes.  This will complete the process of forwarding your Washburn e-mail.  It is your responsibility to ensure that your official e-mail box does not exceed your message quota resulting in the inability of e-mail messages to be accepted into your mailbox

 

Tentative Schedule

 

Tuesday, August 18: Introduction: Why Darwin?

 

Thursday, August 20: Envisioning Nature

Endless Forms,  intro and chapters 2-3 and check out the podcasts prepared for the exhibition at www.darwinendlessforms.org/podcasts

Guest Speaker: Bruce Scherting, Exhibits Director, Kansas University Natural History Museum

 

Tuesday, August 25: Darwin’s Precursors

Appleman, Part III

 

Thursday, August 27: Situating Darwin

Reading: Darwin’s Autobiography at Darwin Online; Mayr, “Who Is Darwin,” in Appleman

 

Tuesday, Sept 1: Collecting Nature

Guest speaker: Craig Freeman, Curator-in-Charge, R. L. McGregor Herbarium, Kansas University Natural History Museum

Reading: Make your own sampling of material in Alfred Russel Wallace’s specimen collections, at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/collections-at-the-museum/wallace-collection/collecting.jsp and the material on Darwin’s specimens at http://darwin-online.org.uk/speciments.html

 

Thursday, Sept 3: Reading Darwin I: Preparing the Ground (the Beagle voyage)

Reading: Selection from Voyage of the Beagle in Appleman, plus, from Darwin Online, chapter X (on Tierra del Fuego)

 

Tuesday, Sept 8: First meeting, Faculty Colloquium. No class.

(but all students must arrange meetings, Sept. 7-11, with the professors to discuss possible paper topics)

 

Thursday, Sept 10: Reading Darwin: Origin of Species

Reading: In Appleman, Darwin’s “An Historical Sketch” and selections from Origin; if you have time, the Darwin-Wallace 1858 presentations to the Linnaean Society (link through the “library” section of www.stephenjaygould.org , under the subheading “Darwin and Darwinism”)

 

Tuesday, Sept 15: Faculty Colloquium, Common Readings

 

Thursday, Sept 17: Teaching the Controversy I: The Reception of Origin

Reading: Appleman, 257-288; Samuel Wilberforce’s review of Origin in Essays Contributed to the Quarterly Review (1874; available on Google.Books); from the Huxley File, “The Darwinian Hypothesis” (1859), “Time and Life: Mr. Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’” (1859); “On Species and Races, Their Origin” (1860); “The Origin of Species” (1860)

 

Tuesday, Sept 22: Faculty Colloquium, Common Readings

 

Thursday, Sept 24: Reading Darwin: Descent of Man

Selection in Appleman plus, from Darwin Online, pp. 49-106 (the rest of ch. 3 and ch. 4)

 

Tuesday, Sept 29: Faculty Colloquium: Documenting the Controversy

Guest Presenter: Dave Kendall, KTWU

 

Thursday, Oct 1:  “Social Darwinism” and Eugenics

Appleman, Part VI; and make your own sampling of Francis Galton, Hereditary Genius (1869), at www.galton.org

 

Tuesday, Oct 6: Faculty Colloquium: Darwin in his time

Presenters: Prasch, Chamberlain

Students: Turn in paper or creative project proposals (topic, thesis, preliminary biblio)

 

Thursday, Oct 8—Fall Break, no class

 

Tuesday, Oct 13: Faculty Colloquium: Darwin and Biology

Presenters: Jander, Arterburn

 

Thursday, Oct 15: Installing Darwinism: The Natural Science Museum

(Field Trip to KU Natural History Museum; special guest: Bruce Scherting, Exhibits Director)

 

Tuesday, Oct 20: Faculty Colloquium: Darwin and the Arts

Presenters: Perret, Goddard

 

Thursday, Oct 22: Teaching the Controversy II: The Scopes Trial

Guest Speaker: Jeff Moran, KU History

Reading: Selections from Moran, The Scopes Trial

 

Tuesday, Oct 27: Faculty Colloquium: Literary Approaches

Presenters: Averill, Smarsh

 

Thursday, Oct 29: Revisioning Nature

Reading: Endless Forms, ch. 4-5

 

Tuesday, Nov 3: Faculty Colloquium: Darwin and Contemporary Theology

Presenters: Goossen, Siebert

 

Thursday, Nov 5: Teaching the Controversy III: “Intelligent Design”

Guest Speaker: Azyz Sharafy, Washburn University Dept. of Art

Reading: Appleman, Part VIII

Students: Turn in paper or project update`

 

Tuesday, Nov 10: Faculty Colloquium: Darwin and the Social Order

Presenters: Kaufman, Jacobs

 

Thursday, Nov 12: Darwinism Evolves: The Modern Synthesis and Beyond

Guest speaker: Bruce Lieberman, KU Dept. of Geology & Senior Curator, Natural History Museum

Appleman, 289-386 and however much you can get to of the work collected in www.stephenjaygould.org/library.html

 

Tuesday, Nov 17: Faculty Colloquium: Drawing Conclusions

 

Thursday, Nov 19: Student presentations

 

Tuesday, Nov 24: Student presentations and Special Surprise Event

 

Thursday, Nov 26—Thanksgiving, no class

 

Tuesday, Dec 1: Student presentations

 

Thursday, Dec 3: Student presentations

 

Friday, Dec. 4: Student papers due

 

Tuesday, Dec. 8 (if needed): Student presentations