ANTHROPOLOGY SERIES
Surviving "Surviving": The Making of an Exhibit on Human Evolution
Professor Janet Monge

This course is co-sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, located at 33rd and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia.  The entrance for the course is at the east end of the building, next to the garage.

LECTURES BEGIN AT 6:30 P.M.

  1. Monday, October 20, 2008 - A Tour of the Exhibit: Surviving: The Body of Evidence
    This multi-media, interactive exhibit focuses on the topic of evolution and how the human body is best understood from an evolutionary perspective. Return to the classroom and take an "evolution" test.
  2. Monday, October 27, 2008 - The Big Question
    What is evolution and how is it a part of our everyday lives? What is the evolution-creationist debate?
  3. Monday, November 3, 2008 - The Challenge
    Why design an exhibit on the topic of evolution? What is the curatorial contribution to this process? What is the best approach an why?
  4. Monday, November 10, 2008 - Design, Fabrication and the Bottom Line
    How do you pick a designer and fabricator for an exhibit? What are the special challenges in building a traveling exhibit? How do we pay for this experience?
  5. Monday, November 17, 2008 - The Audience
    Who comes to the Penn Museum and why? How does this exhibit fulfill the mission of the Museum? What is the future of exhibits of this type at the Penn Museum? This class will include guest speakers from the Museum.
  6. Monday, November 24, 2008 - Success!
    Is the exhibit a success? How do we know? Can success be measured in different ways? Were we successful in helping our audience achieve a greater understanding of the evolutionary process?

This course will explore the topic of evolution as seen through the lens of the exhibit, Surviving: The Body of Evidence, which opened at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in April 2008. The series of lectures will address the controversies involved in the production of an exhibit on evolution, and participants will visit the exhibit with its curator. Results of the course will be used to evaluate the exhibit's effectiveness in conveying the major features of the evolutionary process.

Suggested references:

Penn Museum Surviving Website: http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/surviving/index.shtml

Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/humanorigins/

National Center for Science Education: http://www.natcenscied.org/

Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin. Pantheon Books: New York, 2008.

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