Event Description
Join us for our annual Cheryl Beth Silverman Memorial Lecture featuring Richard Prum, a professor of Ornithology at Yale, a MacArthur Fellow, and the author of the forthcoming new book The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World — And Us.
Prum focuses on a major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences—what Darwin termed “the taste for the beautiful”—create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world. To explain this, he dusts off Darwin’s long-neglected theory of sexual selection, in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons—for the mere pleasure of it—is an independent engine of evolutionary change. The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature’s splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.
Following Prum's lecture, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. The night will conclude with his book signing.
This is event is free of charge, but registration is required. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the talk begins at 6:30 p.m. |
