Harvard Summer Program in Oxford, England

  England

• Oxford: 
Oxford

Term: Summer 
Dates: July 12 -August 23, 2008

Description: There is grandeur to this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.

Charles Darwin from The Origin of Species

Exactly when Oxford became a center of learning is debated. King Henry II moved things along in 1167 when he banned English students from attending the University of Paris, but its clear that by then Oxford was already established as a major academic center. Its first colleges came a little later, in the middle of the thirteenth century. The university flourished over the years, generating in the process some of the most spectacular and gracious medieval architecture anywhere in the world. Oxford today is secure both in its august pastNew College retains its name despite being founded in 1379and in its current role as the planets most fabled and active intellectual powerhouse.

The key to understanding Oxford and the European academic tradition it embodies lies in the ability to embrace old and new. The buildings may be 700 years old, but the ideas discussed within them are twenty-first century. The presence of the pastin the college architecture, winding medieval streets, and strange, antiquated university ritualsserves as a constant reminder of what we owe to the thinkers who came before. Isaac Newton famously observed that he had seen further than other men by standing upon the shoulders of giants. In Oxford students have a visceral sense of the presence of those giants.

Oxford itself played a role in the Darwinian revolution. The famous debate between Thomas Henry Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce, bishop of Oxford, took place in the university museum. It ended with Huxleys triumphant put-down: If then the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means of influence and yet who employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion, I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.

Even during the summer break, Oxford is a lively, student-oriented city. Much of the center is restricted to pedestrians, and the areaincluding the universityis small enough to explore thoroughly on foot. In addition, Oxford is well linked by public transportation to London (about an hour away), making it an ideal base for activities related to the curriculum and personal exploration throughout the south of England.

Highlights: Darwin and the Origins of Evolutionary Biology and Darwin and Contemporary Evolutionary Biology make the most of opportunities to learn in context with visits to Down House, Darwins home in Kent; the Natural History Museum in London, the brainchild of Richard Owen, Darwins most vocal critic; the Linnean Society in London, where the joint Darwin-Wallace paper on evolution was delivered and where Alfred Russel Wallaces field notebooks are kept; and Shrewsbury, where Darwin grew up and attended school (his school is now the city library). Students enroll in both of the following courses.

BIOL S-112 Study Abroad at Oxford: Darwin and the Origins of Evolutionary Biology
This course reviews the history of thought on evolution from its mythic beginnings through the theories of Charles Darwin. Starting with creation stories from around the world, the course then examines the seeds of evolutionary thinking in classical times and the critical intellectual input of scientists in postrevolutionary France, all of which place the Darwin-Wallace insight in its historical context. To best understand each thinker and his or her intellectual milieu, the course takes an explicitly biographical approach, exploring the interactions among an individuals life story, political and social situation, and thought. While the emphasis is on scientists, particularly geologists and biologists, the course also reviews the role that social, political, economic, and philosophical thinkerssuch as Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, and Thomas Malthusplayed in the development of evolutionary theory. The Darwin-Wallace theory itself is reviewed in detail, and its political, social, and theological ramifications are discussed in the context of the reception of The Origin of Species.

Prerequisites: none

BIOL S-113 Study Abroad at Oxford: Darwin and Contemporary Evolutionary Biology
This course examines the history of evolutionary biology in the post-Darwinian world. Like Darwin and the Origins of Evolutionary Biology, it takes a historical approach, following strands of thought either introduced or ignored by Darwin in The Origin of Species through to the present. To take one example, several lectures are dedicated to genetics in evolutionary biology: Students review Darwins rather weak understanding of genetics; the controversies surrounding the reconciliation of Mendelism and Darwinism in the early years of the twentieth century; the eventual reconciliation in the so-called "modern synthesis" of evolutionary biology; the development of inclusive fitness arguments that addressed Darwins concerns about the evolution of altruism; the impact of molecular approaches on our understanding of evolutionary processes; and the neutral theory of molecular evolution. The course covers basic population genetics, speciation, the relationship between micro- and macroevolution, paleobiology, phylogenetic reconstruction, behavioral ecology/sociobiology, and human evolution.

Prerequisites: none

Cost in US$: $7,000

- tuition
- room and some meals
- all scheduled excursions and extracurricular activities

Experience Required: no

This Program is open to World Wide Participants.

Year Founded: 1871