FMST 330C - Darwin’s Dangerous Idea and Life

Credits: (3)
College Curriculum: COLL 200
Domain (Anchored): CSI
Domain (Reaching Out): ALV, NQR

In this course we will explore Charles Darwin’s ongoing cultural and scientific legacy over 150 years after the completion of The Origin of the Species, (completed in 1858 and first published in 1859,) perhaps the most important book written in the history of biology. Our questions about Darwin and Darwinism are not from the perspective of biologists, though, but rather from that of cultural critics. Students will first read Origin of the Species itself, and then we will turn to texts which investigate Darwin’s life as well as the many debates about and (mis)-readings of Evolution and Natural Selection from Darwin’s time until our own. Topics include but are by no means limited to: the importance of the debates (most ongoing) about evolution, various representations of Darwin and Darwinism (including its misinterpretation by German, English and American Eugenicists) and the role they play in popular culture, and the implications of Natural Selection itself.