Subject to change as the term proceeds.
| Week | Tue | Thu | Readings/Assignments | ||
| 1 – Introduction
05,07 Jan |
– Intro to diversity (biol, ling, cultural)
– Course structure + evaluation – Policies, etc |
– Science and the scientific method
(how do we know something, testability, etc) (discussion) – Introduce term project |
The Selfish Gene chapter on replicators
Sagan – Demon Haunted World (2 chapters on nature of science) |
||
| 2 – Fundamentals of biological evolution
12,14 Jan |
Lecture: Greg Bole
– units of selection, replicators, |
Discussion:
What is evolution? Mechanisms of evolution Basic pop biol for evol |
Andrews Thomson 2009 Psych Rev ‘depression is adaptive’
(to discuss Thu) Wayne Maddison’s phylo chapter (for Tues!) |
||
– Mechanisms of biological evolution I – phylogenetic thinking 19, 21 Jan |
Phylogenies – understanding that life is not a ladder; lack of directionality in evol
– lineages + speciation Lecture: Wayne Maddison |
[hyper]adaptationism.
(paper reading and discussion) |
Lynch 2007 PNAS (for Tues) |
||
4 – Mechanisms of biological evolution II – neutral evol 26, 28 Jan |
Constructive Neutral Evolution
Defining complexity Discussion: Naomi Fast (proposals due) |
LGT, horizontal inheritance
(student-led seminars) (Self-organisation) Paper discussion |
Papers depending on participant choice of topic | ||
| 5 – Misc topics in evolutionary biology
2,4 Feb |
Misc topics: Evol of multicellularity?What is an organism? Etc.
(student-led seminars) (Return proposals) |
Evolution of sex
Lecture: Rosie Redfield Compare evol in asexual life
|
Excerpt of Pinker’s The Language Instinct (or The Stuff of Thought) | ||
6 – Introduction to linguistics
09,11 Feb |
Linguistics + Phonology intro | Syntax intro | <working on MURC talk>
– Excerpt of Kenneally 2007 The First Word |
||
7 – Language fundamentals and acquisition 2,4 Mar |
MURC PRACTICE
|
MURC PRACTICE
Midterm course evaluations |
Sat, 06 Mar – MURC!
Pagel 2009 Nature Rev Genet (optional) (readings tentative) |
||
8 – Historical and evolutionary linguistics, evolution of language capacity
9,11 Mar |
MURC feedback
Informal midterm course eval Future course planning Intro to semantics |
Language acquisition
Lecture: Joe Stemberger Reading: Stemberger +Bernhardt 1999 chapter |
Dan Dennett: ants, terrorism and memes (TED talk)
Richerson & Boyd 2005 Not by genes alone: “Nothing about culture makes sense except in the light of evolution” |
||
| Week 9 – Evolution in linguistics and biology
Intro to cultural evolution 16,18 Mar |
Historical linguistics Lecture: Gunnar Hansson |
Comparing linguistic and biological evolution (discussion)
DRAFTS DUE! |
(Optional: Dawkins 1976 meme chapter)Dennett 2009 PNAS (or Cold Spring Harbour Symposia… paper)
Atran 2002 Trouble w memes |
||
| Week 10- Mechanisms of cultural evolution
23,25 Mar |
Replicator revisited, how to apply to culture- what is culture
(Student-led discussion) |
Folklore and cultureCultural transmission – parallels/differences w biol systems(?)
Lecture: Adheesh Sathaye? (Return Drafts + MURC feedback) |
Henrich et al. 2008 | ||
| Week 11 30,1 Apr |
Open to participants
Or: Lecture by Ara Norenzayan? (evolution of religion)
|
Open to participants
|
|||
| Week 126,9 Apr
|
Open to participants | Final paper due (tentative) | |||
| Week 14
13,15 Apr |
Open to participants | Conclusion, evaluations
Mock “grant proposals” due |