The ninth annual MU Life Sciences & Society Symposium runs March 15–17 with lectures in Jesse Hall’s Jesse Auditorium and The Bond Life Sciences Center’s Monsanto Auditorium. This year’s theme is “Claiming Kin,” which explores the link between family relationships and evolutionary science.
The event is free and open to the public.
The keynote address is 7–8:15 p.m. Friday in Jesse Auditorium. The speaker is Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage.
Over the weekend, besides lectures by professors from such institutions as Harvard and Duke, two MU professors will give talks.
Martin Daly, an evolutionary psychology professor in the anthropology department, will lecture 9–10 a.m. Saturday in Jesse Auditorium on how theories of social evolution are relevant to modern human behavior, particularly violence within families.
Robert S. Walker, an MU assistant professor of anthropology, will speak 9–10 a.m. Sunday in Monsanto Auditorium. His topic covers the possible benefits of having two or more men raise a child, based on a family social structure within a South American tribe.
Last year, 665 people registered for the weekend talks.
For more information, including the full slate of speakers, visit lssp.missouri.edu/claimingkin.
Editor's note: The keynote address begins at 7 p.m. Friday. An earlier version of this story had an incorrect time.