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Jill Willis
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The Darwin Festival at Salem State was founded by Professors Virginia Keville and Philip DePalma in 1980. Starting February 7, this year marks the festival's 43rd year. Ryan Fisher, professor of biology at Salem State and a marine biologist, gave us some more background as to how the festival came to be and what to expect from this year's events.
“Tradition is, the week of the festival, which is always around Darwin’s birthday, February the 12th, we cancel all classes and ask students to attend a number of events,” Fisher says.
The events themselves consist of speakers from various departments and fields of study. Fisher added that there have been benefits to the pandemic in that this year they were able to, “reach very far in a cost-effective way.” Typically the festival brings in professionals from the Greater Boston area but this year, they were able to reach beyond that.
The festival emphasizes human evolution and the findings of Charles Darwin, and its themes have been interdisciplinary since its very first year. Fisher included that guest speakers have been sponsored by many Salem State departments including English, geological sciences, as well as geography and sustainability. In more recent years, they have even been working to include social justice representatives as well.
Every year of the festival there is a “Founder Lecture.”
“This year it will be Dr. Rakan Zahawi, and we chose him because he is actually stationed on the Galapagos Islands,” Fisher said. “When Darwin was a young man, he sailed around these islands as well, and Zahawi is also director of the Charles Darwin Foundation.”
Along with this, every Friday of the festival is Alumni Day, where the department welcomes alumni to listen in on the talks. Recently, they began inviting alumni speakers as well.
At the 2022 Darwin Festival, there will be discussions on climate change, cell-to-cell communication, response to the pandemic in public schools, amongst many other intriguing subjects.
“There is something for everyone,” Fisher said.
Each webinar can host up to 500 people and the talks are open to anyone anywhere: you do not have to be a Salem State student or living on campus to access these talks. To register, all you need to do is click the title of the talk you are interested in and it will bring up the registration page.
Any students attending as part of a course will be able to easily input their instructor's name on the registration page as well. Take a deeper look into the available sessions at the Darwin Festival.
All of the talks will also be recorded and eventually posted to the Salem State website. So if you missed out on listening in live, you will have a chance to hear the discussion later on!
A big thanks to Professor Ryan Fisher for sharing the history of this wonderful event with the CRCA. Wishing you all the best with this year’s Darwin Festival!
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Learn more about the Center for Research and Creative Activities. All Salem State University students, faculty, and staff are invited to email their research to be featured by the CRCA: ssu-research@salemstate.edu.