Darwin and Gender Project at Cambridge University

The Darwin and Gender project is gathering momentum. During the last few months the Education Officer and Darwin and Gender Research Associate have approached schools and universities across the country to hold the first series of consultation meetings. There is a great level of interest in the project and for collaborative working.

In secondary schools we are working with teachers in 4 main subject areas; Science, English, History and Religious Education and are in contact with teachers from Devon to Cumbria. Over the course of next year we will be developing resources in conjunction with teachers and testing them in classrooms before putting them online. We are also planning a Darwin Summer School based on the letters and to produce materials for a School Master Class. The Education Officer will be speaking at national conferences to teachers in each of the main subject areas, to promote the project and to share its latest developments.

Our Research Associate is developing the first set of undergraduate resources in collaboration with academics from the UK and US. The focus is on primary sources, bibliographies, audio tracks and points of discussion. Project research into the area of Darwin’s professional attitude to and personal use of chloroform in childbirth was presented as a paper to the Annual Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reproduction at Cambridge University. There are plans to publish the paper. Current students of Darwin’s correspondence at Cambridge now have an opportunity to focus their studies on Darwin and Gender and are receiving supervision in this area.

The project’s Research Associate was also nominated for the Rising Stars Public Engagement programme, which aims to plan, organise and deliver an outreach activity to a non-specialist audience.

Darwin Correspondence Project's Assistant Director delivered a lecture on "Darwin's Women" at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, in October 2010, based on research in progress for the Darwin and Gender project, and conducted a seminar on using the correspondence in teaching across both the arts and sciences.

The newly developed Darwin and Gender blog has a growing number of followers (around 1,700 hits and counting). Contributions so far have come from project members but students of the Sex, Gender and Evolution course at Harvard University will also be submitting posts soon. The Darwin and Gender Twitter feed and related Facebook page have brought the project to the attention of a wider audience who are keen to get involved.