MBL-Arizona State University Seminar in the History of Biology: 

2008 Topic:  Embryos in Historical Context 

Dates: May 14- 21

Application Deadline: January 15, 2007

The MBL-ASU History of Biology Seminar is an intensive week with annually
varying topics designed for a group of no more than 25 advanced graduate
students, postdoctoral associates, younger scholars, and established researchers
in biology, history, philosophy, and the social sciences. 

The topic for 2008 is: "Embryos in Historical Context”  

In 1987, the first MBL History of Biology course focused on History of
Embryology and Genetics.  Embryology has always held a central place at the
Marine Biological Laboratory, and the MBL has held a central place in the
history of Embryology.  As Embryology has become known as Developmental Biology,
the MBL has continued to provided an important place for research and education
asking about how development occurs.  After 20 years, the History of Biology
seminar again focuses on Embryology and Developmental Biology.  

One of the questions of the seminar will be what we know about the MBL’s
Embryology course and research over more than a century. How can we capture this
history?  And how might this knowledge inform current and future decisions about
embryo research and its social, political, economic, and other complex contexts?
Working within the digital environment of the NSF-funded Embryo Project at ASU’s
Center for Biology and Society (http://embryo.asu.edu/index.php), we will look
at people who have done embryo research in the past century, places they worked,
research practices and technologies, concepts developed, images and literature
produced, and the multiple contexts in which they worked. In the case of the MBL
Embryology Course this means, for example. generating a list of all course
directors, with pictures, links to their publications, discussions of organisms
selected and technology used, and all other aspects of the research can provide
vibrant links among otherwise divergent sources and can bring together
scholarship that normally resides in dispersed places that those in other fields
never see.

The MBL is just one example among the week’s worth of examples we will examine.
The seminar will draw on the best available scholarship to explore how
embryological research developed at the MBL and other places. We will consider
why researchers chose to work at MBL and other locations and what they gained by
having multiple sites for research. We will also trace how organisms,
techniques, and research programs changed over time? Was the MBL typical or
unique, and why?

The seminar is an excellent opportunity for graduate students interested in any
aspects of embryo research and its scientific and social contexts to help shape
their research.  It is also an excellent opportunity for developmental
biologists to become involved with history, and historians/ philosophers/social
scientists to become involved with embryology.  The seminar is intended for all
scholars with an interest in embryo research and its relations to other sciences
and society.  

Seminar Directors: John Beatty, University of British Columbia
(john.beatty@ubc.edu); James Collins, Arizona State University
(jcollins@asu.edu); Jane Maienschein, Arizona State University
(maienschein@asu.edu) 

Organizers for 2006: Jane Maienschein (maienschein@asu.edu), Manfred Laubichler
(manfred.laubichler@asu.edu), and Michael Dietrich (Dietrich@dartmouth.edu)

The History of Biology Seminar is offered in collaboration with and is funded by
Arizona State University. For more information about the seminar, past topics,
updates, and application information, please visit:
http://asu.edu/clas/histbiombl/

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