Darwin at Edinburgh
Charles Darwin spent two formative years at Edinburgh University Medical School from 1825-1827, so it is highly appropriate that the University is celebrating Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of “On the Origin of Species” with a variety of seminars, exhibitions, and tours throughout 2009.
Given the times in which Darwin arrived in Edinburgh, it is likely his creative ideas were fueled by the Scottish Enlightenment. Head of Collections at Edinburgh University describes the setting: “We have one of the greatest intellectual fireworks displays that ever happened in Europe. And then one of the greatest minds which the UK ever produces happens to settle on it. You would expect something very important to happen” (How Edinburgh inspired Darwin’s Origin of Species, The Times, February 2009).
Tom Dickins of UEL and I are hosting a Darwin workshop at Edinburgh Castle on Sunday, 5 April 2009, on insights from evolutionary theory for “Intergroup Aggression, Security and Terrorism”. Presentations will range in approaches and applications from laboratory experiments to international relations theory. Speakers include John Archer, Oliver Curry, Michael Price, Max Taylor, and Bradley Thayer, along with participants from the policy world (including the RAF, UN, DFID, and US Office of Naval Research).
The workshop is the 2nd of 6 in an ESRC funded seminar series called “Darwin’s Medicine: Evolutionary Psychology and its Applications”, organized by Mark van Vugt (University of Kent, Canterbury) and Robin Dunbar (University of Oxford).