Institute explores visual culture in teaching science
"Visual Culture
and Pedagogy in the Life Sciences," an institute being sponsored this
month by the Fannie and Alan
Leslie Center for the Humanities, will focus on the history of how objects
(photographs, drawings, sculptures, videos, digital images) have been used to
teach the life sciences and how they have continued to evolve. "Learning
in science is visual," says Michael Dietrich, associate
professor of biological
sciences. "Everyone who takes a science course experiences visual
culture."
Michael Dietrich with cross section models from the 1920s of a paramecium, a
bee, and a lily. (Photo by Joseph Mehling '69)
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In a combination of public lectures and academic workshops, the institute
will cover the topic from a variety of angles. Visiting scholars and campus
fellows, representing a broad cross section of disciplines, including history,
art history, philosophy, film and television studies, and biology, will publish
a book resulting from their participation in the institute. Public lectures,
taking place weekly until May 30, will offer opportunities to discuss the many
ways visual culture is used now and has been used in the past in teaching and
learning.
Jonathan
Crewe, professor of English and the director of the
Leslie Center, was excited to find a way to connect the humanities with the
sciences.
"Our center was founded with an interdisciplinary mandate that we want
to implement as imaginatively as possible," he says. "We are always
on the lookout for ways to build more bridges between the humanities and the
sciences."
The institute's scholar-in-residence is Nancy Anderson,
an expert in the use of imaging in the life sciences, especially microscopy.
She is on campus for about nine months conducting research, working with the
institute, and helping develop an independent but interrelated exhibition at
the Hood Museum of Art, called
Life Forms: Visual Lessons in Biology. The exhibition, which runs through May,
showcases Dartmouth's collection of historic material from the biology
department archives, including an assortment of models representing brains,
cells, a flower, a bee, and a 5-foot-tall paper maché human being (complete
with removable organs, once used for anatomy class).
The following public lectures will held in 2 Rockefeller and will begin at
4:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend.
- "Layers of Meaning: Images of Cells and Molecules," by Maura
Flannery, St. John's University -Thursday, May 4
- "Visible Speech," by Mara Mills, Harvard University -Thursday,
May 11
- "Transgressive Body Politics: Artistic and Medical Anatomy Education
in 19th-Century Philadelphia," by Amy Werbel, St. Michael's College
-Thursday, May 18
- "Kinetic Immersion," by Robin Curtis, Frei Universitat Berlin
-Thursday, May 25
For more information about the Humanities Institute on Visual Culture and
Pedagogy in the Life Sciences, visit www.dartmouth.edu/~dietrich/dhi06.html
or call 646-0896.
By SUSAN KNAPP
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