In our third event, Professor Iain McCalman (Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Sydney; Director of the HRC from 1995-2002) will introduce and discuss On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, written by Charles Darwin--the father of evolutionary biology--and published in 1859.

Professor Iain McCalman is an award-winning professor of history and the humanities at the University of Sydney. His 2009 book, Darwin’s Armada (Penguin) won three prizes and was the basis of the TV series, Darwin’s Brave New World. He is a Fellow of three Learned Academies and is a former President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He was Director of the Humanities Research Centre, ANU, from 1995-2002 and won the inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Prize at ANU for Teaching Excellence. He is a former Federation Fellow and currently a Research Professor in history at the University of Sydney and co-Director of the Sydney Environment Institute. His new book, The Reef – A Passionate History, from Captain Cook to Climate Change, will be published by Penguin in Australia in November and by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux in the USA in May 2014. He was made Officer of the Order of Australia in 2007 for services to history and the humanities.

Suggested Readings

Iain McCalman, "Islands on his Mind," pp. 60-81.

Excerpt from Darwin's Armada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution. ​New York; London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2009.

Drinks and light refreshments will be provided.

RSVP essential. Let us know you're coming via our Eventbrite page.

Learn more, and view the series program, on the main series webpage.

Location & Parking

Humanities Research Centre
First Floor, A.D Hope Building
14 Ellery Crescent
Canberra 0200 Australia

The Humanities Research Centre is housed on the first floor of the A.D. Hope Building, located at the top of ANU's Union Court. Map viewable here.

Parking

Limited roadside parking, Ellery Cr (free after 5pm)
School of Music Carpark(s), Childers St (free after 5pm)
Baldessin Precinct Parking Station, Ellery Cr (free after 5:30pm)
School of Art Carpark, Ellery Cr (free after 5pm)
Toad Hall Carpark, Kingsley St (free after 5pm)

There is freely accessible bike parking at both entrances to the A.D. Hope Building.

Complete parking map of ANU campus provided here.