This was published on the font page of "The Gunk," an insert in my college newspaper, The Oracle.
Thursday February 19th, 2009.
Darwin's 200th Birthday Week
by Jesse Ordansky
Last week was “Darwin Week” at SUNY New Paltz. Students, faculty, and community members were invited to watch movies, attend lectures, and share in celebrating the 200th birthday of renowned scientist, Charles Darwin.
Although he passed over 100 years ago, “Darwin Week” emphasizes the importance of a theory that scientists still use as a building block of modern evolutionary theory.
Guest speakers came to New Paltz demonstrating applications of century-old ideas. On Monday, Gordon Gallup of Albany University lectured on the science of sex appeal. He focused specifically on how and why humans select their mates. Evidently, symmetry is the name of the game – the more symmetrical a face appears, the more attractive it is to the fairer gender.
Another guest lecturer, David Schmidt discussed his study, the International Sexual Description Project. He analyzed the likelihood of restrictive or unrestrictive mating practices in males and females. In other words, Schmidt tried to decipher whether men or woman are more selective in choosing mates. Based on factors such as culture and geography, Schmidt deduced that both men and woman are evolutionarily programmed to dissimilarly manifest both restricted and unrestricted mating tendencies.
Guest speakers illustrated how much has been learned since Darwin’s research career. Modern discoveries aside, Darwin’s findings are still relevant to scientists today. In order to understand the human being’s place in the world, analyzing natural selection and Darwinian evolution is almost necessary. As biology professor Denis Moran explains, every living thing is part of the evolutionary system. In terms of the necessity of understanding basic evolutionary theory, Dr. Moran said “Particularly, as a human being, you better understand your placement in the realm of all animals and plants and our interdependence.” Chair of the biology department and associate professor Thomas Nolan also described applications of Darwin’s selection theories.
“When you apply selection thinking or selectionist hypotheses you’re going right back to Darwin. He laid out a whole host of ways of proposing hypotheses to test questions about how adaptations and characteristics that are advantageous evolved and why certain things are not present, why things are selected against.”
Stemming from Darwinian theories of evolution and natural selection, sexual selection was discussed prominently throughout Darwin Week. Sexual selection, as third-year evolutionary studies student Jesse Siegel describes, is the processes by which humans choose a mating partner. Siegel continues to explain that humans want “to mate with someone with the best genes possible so [they] can produce the best offspring possible. Sexual selection considers the traits that are innately attractive to somebody else…” This simplified explanation of a complex theory endorses the notion that Darwin’s studies have influenced scientists and students greatly. Beyond suggesting the unifying mechanism of evolution, Darwin paved the way for theories that attempt to explain universal unknowns.
Although applicable in many disciplines, not everybody subscribes to evolutionary theory. Fourth-year psychology major, Adam Gordon believes that the origin of man was a divine endeavor rather than an evolutionary anomaly. Regardless of personal views, Gordon believes that evolutionary studies have a home in the science world.
“We need to have a mixture. We need to have a free-flowing ability to explain ideas and theories from all angles. We need to be able to approach different and more intelligent ideas of how things came to be,” Gordon said.
Gordon believes that Darwinian theories and creation can coexist in the science world. With this interpretation and the fact that most early scientists believed in a deity, it becomes possible to forge a middle ground. Scientists and students should consider all theories of creation before deciding on what they consider to be factual.
Although he is not the end-all be-all of evolutionary theory, Charles Darwin provided a concrete cornerstone for modern evolutionary theory. Darwin Week celebrated a founding father of modern evolutionary research.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
I HAVE NO TIME TO WRITE! So read....
Considering the fact that I am a full-time journalism and communications student, I have very little time to write for myself. With this in mind, I've decided to start posting my television critiques and my material that has been/will be published in my college newspaper (The New Paltz Oracle). We'll start with an article I wrote about the Black Studies major at New Paltz (my editor writes my headlines). This article was published on Thursday, February 12th, 2009:
Black Studies Department Breaks Boundaries
by Jesse Ordansky
Students who value an open-minded collegiate experience might find their niche in the Department of Black Studies. Those who pursue this major can benefit from being surrounded by students and faculty who are devoted to academia and embracing unique social perspectives.
The amount of dedication shown in the Black Studies Department at SUNY New Paltz encourages the notion that the college students of today will be the open-minded scholars of tomorrow.
According to the SUNY New Paltz website, the mission of the Black Studies department is to analyze and define the African experience from an African-centered approach. Depending on the discipline, Black Studies classes explore issues through an African-based psychological, legal, political, or humanitarian lens. A lesson about African enslavement, for example, will focus on African perspectives as opposed Euro-centric ideas.
“There would be discussion of what it is that they’re having to give up, what the state of the slave ship was like, how many of them died on the ship, what the conditions were, how they felt... The Euro-centric perspective doesn’t give you any insight into the African mind,” Chair of the Black Studies Department Dr. Wade-Lewis said.
Like students of any discipline, prospective Black Studies majors may wonder: What can I do with this degree? The reality is that an undergraduate degree in Black Studies is just as versatile as any other liberal arts certification. When Black Studies professor Dr. Major Coleman was asked in which fields knowledge in Black Studies might be advantageous, he mentioned “business, which depends more and more on non-European and non-Western countries, social service agencies, the church particularly…” Dr. Coleman also added that in today’s competitive job market “a graduate degree is almost a requirement. “
Although focused and dedicated, the Black Studies Department is not without its problems. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, Black Studies require a broad range of courses. Most of these courses, according to senior and Black Studies major Kathryn Hall, cannot be offered every semester. If these classes were available more frequently, more instructors would be needed. More instructors mean more money and unfortunately, New Paltz does not seem able to employ enough professors to offer the 71 undergraduate courses and the six graduate courses within the Black Studies major.
In contrast, the current professors “really reach out to their students,” Hall said. “They’re very holistic and they understand that it’s not just whatever your academic self is.” Professors in the Department of Black Studies make a conscious effort to reach out to students on a personal level as well as an academic level. They understand that a student’s life can fall apart, or in ideal situations, become defined in their academia.
“The four years you spend at university are some of the most wonderful years of your life. Only a few people in the entire world get to spend four years of their life in their young adulthood simply to study and to learn,” said Dr. Coleman.
Since 1969 Black Studies students at New Paltz have been pursuing knowledge with regard to an African-centered perspective as opposed to learning from Euro-centric ideas. 21-year-old senior Jamiles Lartey describes the fundamental idea behind Black Studies courses: “You have to be willing to open your mind and look at things from a different perspective.”
Black Studies Department Breaks Boundaries
by Jesse Ordansky
Students who value an open-minded collegiate experience might find their niche in the Department of Black Studies. Those who pursue this major can benefit from being surrounded by students and faculty who are devoted to academia and embracing unique social perspectives.
The amount of dedication shown in the Black Studies Department at SUNY New Paltz encourages the notion that the college students of today will be the open-minded scholars of tomorrow.
According to the SUNY New Paltz website, the mission of the Black Studies department is to analyze and define the African experience from an African-centered approach. Depending on the discipline, Black Studies classes explore issues through an African-based psychological, legal, political, or humanitarian lens. A lesson about African enslavement, for example, will focus on African perspectives as opposed Euro-centric ideas.
“There would be discussion of what it is that they’re having to give up, what the state of the slave ship was like, how many of them died on the ship, what the conditions were, how they felt... The Euro-centric perspective doesn’t give you any insight into the African mind,” Chair of the Black Studies Department Dr. Wade-Lewis said.
Like students of any discipline, prospective Black Studies majors may wonder: What can I do with this degree? The reality is that an undergraduate degree in Black Studies is just as versatile as any other liberal arts certification. When Black Studies professor Dr. Major Coleman was asked in which fields knowledge in Black Studies might be advantageous, he mentioned “business, which depends more and more on non-European and non-Western countries, social service agencies, the church particularly…” Dr. Coleman also added that in today’s competitive job market “a graduate degree is almost a requirement. “
Although focused and dedicated, the Black Studies Department is not without its problems. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, Black Studies require a broad range of courses. Most of these courses, according to senior and Black Studies major Kathryn Hall, cannot be offered every semester. If these classes were available more frequently, more instructors would be needed. More instructors mean more money and unfortunately, New Paltz does not seem able to employ enough professors to offer the 71 undergraduate courses and the six graduate courses within the Black Studies major.
In contrast, the current professors “really reach out to their students,” Hall said. “They’re very holistic and they understand that it’s not just whatever your academic self is.” Professors in the Department of Black Studies make a conscious effort to reach out to students on a personal level as well as an academic level. They understand that a student’s life can fall apart, or in ideal situations, become defined in their academia.
“The four years you spend at university are some of the most wonderful years of your life. Only a few people in the entire world get to spend four years of their life in their young adulthood simply to study and to learn,” said Dr. Coleman.
Since 1969 Black Studies students at New Paltz have been pursuing knowledge with regard to an African-centered perspective as opposed to learning from Euro-centric ideas. 21-year-old senior Jamiles Lartey describes the fundamental idea behind Black Studies courses: “You have to be willing to open your mind and look at things from a different perspective.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
