A triple helix: metaphor, society, and the science of evolution – A hybrid workshop in memory of Richard Lewontin

Summary

The main goal of the workshop, besides honoring Dick Lewontin’s memory, will be to stop and reflect on the topics advanced by him and to look for new paths to inquire about the topics that he worked on.
The in-person activities of this workshop will take place at the Faculty of Sciences, at UNAM’s main campus in the south of Mexico City.
In-person sessions will be live-transmitted so that people connecting from abroad will be able to interact with everyone else.
There will also be dedicated virtual sessions where local and distant participants will be able to interact.
The workshop’s program is still work in progress, but it will expectedly include topics ranging from population genetics to history, philosophy and social studies of science
In order to improve interaction and focus discussion, three distinct roles will be performed by participants: speaker, discussant, and discussion organizer.

News

Introduction

The work of Richard Lewontin (1929-2021) covers a wide variety of topics, from experimental and theoretical researches, to philosophical issues which impinge upon biological science. Nonetheless, rather than focusing exclusively on his legacy, the current workshop will be an opportunity to revisit some of the themes around which his thought revolved, like the following:

Evolutionary biology as a science
Metaphors in biology
Biology in society

Not only Dick Lewontin made particular contributions to each topic, but we think the best way to pay homage to him is to continue the conversations that he started through discussing related topics in a way that he would have enjoyed. To reach this goal, we invite both early-, mid- and late-stage career researchers in history, philosophy, and social studies of biology, as well as in evolutionary biology, ecology, genetics, and related areas, to engage in a multi-disciplinary conversation about some of the topics that occupied Lewontin and we consider relevant to contemporary biological science.

Some of the questions that this workshop will deal with are the following: what is the role of metaphors in biological science?; what new metaphors is contemporary biology grounded on?; what kind of science is evolutionary biology?; what is the role of history in evolutionary theorizing?; how biological thinking can contribute to, or prevent, social justice?

Hopefully, the workshop will provide an excellent opportunity to discuss in a hybrid and multidisciplinary setting about topics that are relevant to contemporary biological sciences, to science studies, and to the public in general.

The Format

In addition to advancing on the topics that interested to Lewontin, this workshop will also be an occasion to explore, and experiment with, hybrid formats. This will allow us to deal with the uncertainty which still surrounds international travels and in-person activities due to Covid-19.

Each participant will be given the option to attend in-person or virtually, and to choose among three different participation roles (for more details, please check the Call for Applications). This organization will expectedly allow us to focus on a reasonable number of topics and will improve interaction.