Contrary to expectations generated by my absence from this space, I have not fallen off the planet. I have however been busy with a variety of projects, including an intensive filming schedule for my upcoming WellesleyX class (Introduction to Human Evolution) and several research projects which I will hopefully be blogging more about soon. The addition of a newborn to our house has also been a bit of a (wonderfully) disruptive element. (there was a little bit about submitting tenure materials over the summer, too…)
International student orientation begins today at Wellesley, however, which means the beginning of the semester is creeping over the horizon. As such, I should be returning to a more regular schedule here shortly. This semester is going to be an exciting one as I navigate the intersection between my on-campus students and (as of last check) more than 12,000 online students. The process of assembling the course over the past two months has been interesting and humbling, particularly in recognizing the challenges and decidedly different skill set associated with extensive filming. I consider myself very comfortable in front of a class or even a large conference audience*, but filming solo in front of a camera is not easy. I am fortunate to have a great video production team and from what I have seen, the final results will look great. But it is not easy.
It has its fun moments, though. One of the most enjoyable was filming in the Wellesley College library’s special collections last week. We were filming a short segment, placed early in the course, on the life of Darwin and the development of evolutionary theory. We are exceedingly privileged to own a 1st edition copy of On the Origin of Species (courtesy of a gift back in the early 1930s), which made for a wonderful backdrop for the lecture segment.
I am normally not much for the worship of historical objects (fossils are an obvious exception!), but I was surprised at how excited I was to flip through the pages. Alongside Darwin’s book I had a first edition of the two-volume collection put together by his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, entitled Zoonomia: Or the laws of organic life, one of the important proto-evolutionary texts of the early 19th century.
Anyway…I just thought I would share.
