Niles Eldredge - Lectures by Niles Eldredge

Menu of Lectures by Niles Eldredge

Niles Eldredge lectures regularly on evolution, biodiversity and creationism—at universities, museums, conferences, corporate settings and ecotourism venues all over the world. Please see the list of recent and forthcoming lecture and media appearances on a separate page on this website.

Most recently, in conjunction with the simultaneous opening at the American Museum of Natural History of his curated exhibition Darwin (New York, November 2005), and publication of his companion book Darwin. Discovering the Tree of Life (W.W. Norton, 2005), Eldredge has developed a series of lectures on Darwin, evolution and “intelligent design.” Charles Darwin’s bicentennial falls on February 12, 2009; the exhibition Darwin will travel to Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and Toronto before opening at the Natural History Museum in London in time for the celebration of the Darwin’s 200th birthday. The exhibition will then travel to additional venues. Now more than ever, Darwin, evolution and intelligent design creationism are key issues in contemporary culture—and politics.

All lectures are delivered with a rich Powerpoint presentation of colorful images of fossils, living organisms, Darwin’s notebooks, manuscripts and letters, his family and colleagues, and his personal possessions, as the story of Darwin’s life and intellectual journey unfolds.

Lecture topics include:

Darwin. Discovering the Tree of Life. An overview of Darwin’s life—with emphasis on his intellectual journey that led him to his theory of evolution through natural selection.

Darwin. The Making of the Exhibition. The history of the making of the hugely popular exhibition Darwin at the American Museum of Natural History—featuring a virtual tour of the exhibition.

Confessions of a Darwinist. Based on Eldredge’s recent essay in the acclaimed magazine The Virginia Quarterly, this lecture links Eldredge’s own personal odyssey as an evolutionist—from his early days developing the notion of “punctuated equilibria” with his colleague Stephen Jay Gould, to his most recent work on the “sloshing bucket” theory of evolution—with Darwin’s work. Darwin got most everything right—but his mistakes in dealing with the fossil record of evolution set the stage for Eldredge’s own work beginning a century after Darwin published On the Origin of Species. (The essay is downloadable from the Niles Eldredge Evolution Library page on this website. The lecture is available either as a reading, or as a Powerpoint presentation).

Darwin in His Own Words. Available either as a reading or as a Powerpoint presentation, this lecture relies heavily on Darwin’s critical writings as the development of his ideas emerges.

Evolution and Intelligent Design Creationism. The nature and current status of this ages-old political struggle that continues to roil American political and educational life.

Intelligently Designed:The Evolution of Everyday Objects. Cars, computers, musical instruments—all human artifacts are “intelligently designed,” and all have “evolutionary” histories that are similar to biological evolution in some ways—and very different in other respects.

Other lecture topics available by special arrangement.

Interested in having Niles Eldredge come to your institution to speak on these important contemporary topics? Contact: Mick Wycoff Productions