Abstract
The chosen subtitle of this book is Culture, Politics, and Resources in and around Alabama because Alabama fares worse than any other state in the South in K-12 evolution education, despite a wealth of local resources for observing evolution in action. Alabama is infamous regarding a number of controversial topics, including race relations, same-sex marriage, climate change denial, along with evolution. This position is not unwarranted. As indicated, this is related to the region’s historic resistance to outside-enforced change. Alabama has made national and international news numerous times over the past several decades. Among the most notorious incidents is the then governor George Wallace’s “stand on the schoolhouse door” in front of Foster Hall on the campus at the University of Alabama (UA) in 1963. More recently, the UA sorority system came under fire for its lack of racial integration 50 years after the Wallace incident, as did the State for defying a federal mandate to issue same-sex marriage licenses.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
The New York Times published an article outlining the most recent racial discrimination controversy in a UA sorority in 2015, and it also summarizes recent previous incidents (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/nytnow/sorority-video-generates-charges-of-discrimination.html?_r=0). The Alabama Supreme Court has recently become the first state to defy the federal high court mandate to issue same-sex marriage certificates (http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2015/03/alabama_supreme_court_alone_in.html).
- 2.
Louise Mead and Anton Mates, “Why Science Standards are Important to a Strong Science Curriculum and how States Measure Up,” Evolution: Education and Outreach 2, no. 3 (09/01, 2009), 359–371.
- 3.
For an overview of how starting a program in the South differed from trying to start them in the North, see Kristina N. Spaulding, Rebecca L. Burch and Christopher D. Lynn, “Evolutionary Studies Reproductive Successes and Failures: Knowing Your Institutional Ecology,” EvoS Journal: The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium 6, no. 1 (2014), 18–38.
- 4.
M. Jenice “Dee” Goldston and Peggy Kyzer, “Teaching Evolution: Narratives with a View from Three Southern Biology Teachers in the USA,” Journal of Research in Science Teaching 46, no. 7 (2009), 762–790. doi:10.1002/tea.20289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tea.20289.
- 5.
Gad Saad, The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal about Human Nature Prometheus Books, 2011).
- 6.
There are numerous excellent books and articles that make this case in the context of the growing field of evolutionary medicine, but I suggest “Evolution, Medicine, and the Darwin Family,” Evolution: Education and Outreach 4, no. 4 (2011), 613–623 by Michael Antolin, whose ALLELE talk in 2015 ties him to my narrative and the region.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lynn, C.D. (2017). Afterword. In: Lynn, C., Glaze, A., Evans, W., Reed, L. (eds) Evolution Education in the American South. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95139-0_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95139-0_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95138-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95139-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)