The Darwin Project
Lecture Speakers
All Liberal Arts Friday Forums are delivered by St. Ambrose University faculty.
Major Lectures
David Sloan Wilson, evolutionist, author, SUNY distinguished professor at Binghamton University
Sept. 15, 7:30 p.m., Rogalski Center
David Sloan Wilson uses evolutionary theory to explain all aspects of humanity, in addition to the rest of life, for a general audience in "Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin´s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives" (Bantam 2007). He is a distinguished professor of biology and anthropology at Binghamton University, part of the State University of New York. He publishes in anthropology, psychology, and philosophy journals in addition to his mainstream biological research. His academic books include "Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior" (with Elliott Sober, Harvard 1998), "Darwin´s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society" (Chicago, 2002), and "The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative" (co-edited with Jonathan Gottschall, Northwestern 2005). Wilson also directs EvoS, a campus-wide program that uses evolutionary theory as a common language for the unification of knowledge. He earned his B.A. from the University of Rochester and his Ph.D. from Michigan State University.
Father George Coyne, director ermeritus of the Vatican Observatory, adjunct professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona
In 1976 he became a senior research fellow at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona and a lecturer in the department of astronomy. The following year he served as Director of the UA's Catalina Observatory and as Associate Director of the LPL. Coyne became Director of the Vatican Observatory in 1978 and retired in 2006. He has been awarded several PhD degrees honoris causa, and will be awarded the Mendel Medal by Villanova University in September 2008. Rev. Coyne
completed his bachelor's degree in mathematics and his licentiate in philosophy at Fordham University, New York City. He obtained his doctorate in astronomy from Georgetown University in 1962.
Father Coyne's Full Biography (PBS)
Article: Intelligent Design belittles God, Vatican director says (Catholic Online, Jan. 30, 2006)
Michael Ruse, Florida State University,
Director, Program in the History
and Philosophy of Science
Michael Ruse is Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Program in History and Philosophy of Science at Florida State University. A former Guggenheim Fellow and a Gifford Lecturer, Ruse is an expert on the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology. He appeared as a witness for the ACLU in Arkansas in the successful attack on the teaching of creationism in the state’s public schools. He is the author of many books, including The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw, Monad to Man: The Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology, and Can a Darwinian be a Christian? The Relationship between Science and Religion.
Jim Cook, Philosophy
Dr. James E. Cook holds a Masters degree from Saint Louis University and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. After 30-plus years of teaching in the philosophy department at SAU, Cook retired in Spring 2007. He now holds Professor Emeritus rank at SAU. Cook has specialized in the Theory of Knowledge, and, in particular, in the Philosophy of Science.
Liberal Arts Friday Forums
Robin Anderson, Professor of Psychology
Robin Anderson has been a member of the St. Ambrose University Psychology Department since 1990. She earned her BA in Psychology from Indiana University, and her MA and PhD from the University of Iowa in the areas of Social Psychology, and Health & Behavioral Science. Anderson is active in promoting students’ original empirical research, and has sponsored over two dozen research projects presented at regional and national student and professional conferences. Her research interests include stereotyping and prejudice, and the cognitive effects of stress. Anderson developed an interest in empathy stemming from her research on prejudice, and has given invited talks on the topic to professional audiences.
Bill Campbell, Assistant Professor of Music
Bill Campbell composes music for theater, dance, film, and the concert stage. As a pianist, he has performed in multiple new music groups including the acclaimed Sonoran Consort.
Recent commissions include the score for the dance-drama "Coyolxauhqui ReMembers" with the Latina Dance Project. Current projects include a multi-disciplinary installation of art and music titled Mechanical Advantage, a work for young concert band titled Open Vistas, and solo piano pieces.
Campbell is an Assistant Professor of Music at St. Ambrose University. He serves as a board member of the Iowa Composers Forum, and is also a member of ASCAP, CCLI, CMI and the American Composers Forum.
Carol DeVolder, Professor of Psychology
Carol DeVolder began teaching at St. Ambrose in 1997. She
obtained her PhD from the University of Iowa in 1993. Her
research interests include neurological substrates of learning
and memory and experimental neuropsychology. She is also
the faculty advisor for SAU’s Psychology Club.
Ed Dunn, Professor of Theology
Professor of Theology at St. Ambrose University and a priest of the Davenport Diocese, Ed Dunn earned his doctorate in theology from Boston College, a Master of Divinity from both Andover Newton Theological School and Blessed John XXIII Seminary, Newton, Mass., and a Master of Arts in music from the University of Iowa. Dunn did his undergraduate work at St. Ambrose University. His recent publications include "Missionary Theology: Foundations in Development" (University Press of America, 1979) and "What Is Theology: Foundational and Moral" (Twenty-Third Publications, 1998). Dunn also was a long-time columnist for the Davenport Diocese Catholic Messenger. He has developed a special interest in the relationship between faith and science and has taught a mini-course, Faith in a Scientific Evolutionary World, in the diocesan Ministry Formation Program.
Ryan Dye, Associate Professor of History
Ryan Dye came to St. Ambrose in July 2000, and currently serves as an associate professor and chair of the History and Geography Department. Dye also is the Director of International Education and Director of the Irish Studies program which he has helped to build by encouraging student interest in Irish culture, teaching Irish history courses, promoting the study abroad program in Carlow, Ireland, and working with the St. Patrick Society at St. Ambrose.
Joseph Hebert, Assistant Professor of Political Science
L. Joseph Hebert is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Leadership Studies at St. Ambrose University. He received his BA in Philosophy from the University of Maine and his MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto. At SAU he is Director of Pre-Law Studies, teaches political thought and law, and coaches SAU’s mock trial team. He is currently working on a book-length study of nineteenth century statesman Alexis de Tocqueville’s "Democracy in America," entitled "More than Kings and Less than Men: Tocqueville on the Promises and Perils of Democratic Individualism."
Micah Kiel, Assistant Professor of Theology
Micah Kiel is an Assistant Professor of Theology with a specialization in Biblical Studies. He has an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary and a BA in Music Performance from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. He has given lectures at many churches, and has been actively involved in religious education and music at his former parish in New Jersey. He has been a member of the faculty at St. Ambrose since August 2007.
Keri Manning, Assistant Professor of History
Keri Manning is an assistant professor of history at St. Ambrose whose teaching specialties are modern United States, women's, and East Asian history. Her past research has focused upon the Vietnam War, especially the contested definitions of masculinity that protests by Vietnam Veterans Against the War embodied in the early 1970s. She is currently engaged in research on Rose Williams, the older sister of American playwright Tennessee Williams.
Bill Parsons, Professor of Political Science
William W. Parsons is Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science and Leadership Studies at Saint Ambrose University. Dr. Parsons holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Arizona and a Master’s of Public Administration from Iowa State University. Dr. Parsons has been member of the Saint Ambrose faculty since 1989 and during that time has co-authored two additions of a crime policy text, Criminal Justice and the Policy Process, several journal articles on crime policy and water policy, initiated and for seven years served as the Director of the Master of Organizational Leadership program. He has also facilitated or co-facilitated a number of workshops and seminars on practical community level politics and leadership.
Owen Rogal, English professor
Owen Rogal, a Rutgers University Ph.D, has been teaching at St. Ambrose since 1985 and while in some ways he’d be very happy to remain in the nineteenth century, different sorts of opportunities have opened for him at St. Ambrose forcing him into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He had the opportunity to develop, for example, courses on disability and Holocaust literature and environmental writing. He also serves on the board of CommUniversity, having chaired the program committee for the last four years.