Talking evolution for the Assembly Series

Pulitzer Prize-winning Larson on campus Feb. 10

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Edward J. Larson, J.D., Ph.D., University Professor and Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University, will present “From Dayton to Dover: A Brief History of the Evolution Teaching Controversy in the U.S.” at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 10, in Louderman Hall, Room 458. This Assembly Series program is the Thomas S. Hall Lecture.

Larson

Larson will focus on a contentious 80-year period in U.S. history, beginning in 1925 with “The Monkey Trial,” Tennessee v. John Scopes and the renowned showdown between William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. The period ends with Kitzmiller et. al v. Dover Area School District, the 2005 decision in which the U.S. District Court ruled that teaching intelligent design in public school biology classes violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution because intelligent design is not science and “cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.”

Larson’s work deals mainly with evolution, law and the current and historical conflicts between science and religion. His books are regarded as both scholarly and highly readable for the general public. Some of his works include “The Revolution of 1800,” “The Creation-Evolution Debate: Historical Perspectives,” “Evolution Workshop: God and Science in the Galapagos Islands” and the Pulitzer-winner “Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate over Science and Religion.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree at Williams College and both a master’s degree and a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, Larson earned a law degree from Harvard University. He lectures around the world and appears frequently in print and broadcast media.

For more information about the lecture series, visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu or call (314) 935-4620.