Popular Primates: A Time-Travel Through National Geographic

 

A lecture by Marianne Sommer, Ph.D., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

 

Introduction by author and broadcaster, Erika Ritter

 

Wednesday August 13, 2008

6:00 p.m.

OISE/UT Auditorium, 252 Bloor Street West

 

ATTENDANCE TO THE KEYNOTE EVENT IS INCLUDED WITH CONFERENCE REGISTRATION

 

The event is also open to the public

Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at the door

Advance tickets can be purchased through Paypal and will be available for pick-up at the door

Monkeys and apes are humans' closest relatives, and these 'cousins' of ours generate great public interest. The scientific study of non-human primates, and apes in particular, is thus a politically charged field that tell us a great deal about ourselves. This becomes evident from a look at the history of National Geographic, a magazine, first published in 1888, aimed at bridging the gap between science and the public, and that has played a crucial part in the shaping of popular images of primates.

This lecture traces the developments in the imagery and language that introduced monkeys and apes to the magazine's large readership. A time-travel through this powerful science communication channel brings to light the changing conceptual and actual relationships between humans and apes and their place in the scientific and wider cultural contexts.

Marianne Sommer is a historian of science with main foci on the history of the biological and anthropological sciences. More particularly, she is interested in the cultural-scientific drawing of boundaries within the human species and between humans and animals. Her second book, Bones and Ochre: The Curious Afterlife of the Red Lady of Paviland, has been published by Harvard University Press.