[Darwin2009-1] Welcome to the Origin of Species Reading Odyssey Group!

[Stephanie Aktipis]

Hello Origin reading group!
I hope you're all looking forward to tomorrow's kick-off talk, "The World
Before Darwin" by Professor Everett Mendelsohn!  It should serve as a
wonderful background for you as you start the first two chapters of 'The
Origin of Species'.  If you haven't yet signed up and would still like to,
please visit http://DarwinLecture1.eventbrite.com<http://darwinlecture1.eventbrite.com/>.


Please let me take a minute to introduce myself - I've just completed my
Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from the Department of Organismic and
Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.  For my dissertation, I studied
the evolution of a large group of marine snails and was lucky enough to
visit some fantastic field sites such as Australia, Sweden, Abaco Islands,
Bahamas and the hydrothermal vents at the East Pacific Rise.  I have also
taught 'The Origin of Species' to Harvard undergrads for the last two years
and am greatly looking forward to exploring The Origin of Species with you
over the next three months.

Before our first meeting, I'd really appreciate if you could allow me to get
to know you a little better by answering a few questions.  Knowing some
background about you will help me to better moderate our discussion
sections, so it would be wonderful if you could take a few minutes to reply
to this email with your answers.

1. *Where are you?* (Tell me your location/time zone):

2. *Last science class?*  When was your last biology class (high school or
college)?  What year was that (so I have a sense of how long it's been since
you formally studied biology if at all)? Did you like it or not?

3. *What do you do?*  What's your current job? Does your work involve
biology or biological concepts?

4.  *What do you hope to get out of this reading group?  *What's your
motivation for joining?

5. *Anything else?*  Is there anything else you’d like me to know about you
that will help me help you have a good experience reading Darwin's "On the
Origin of Species"?

I will be in touch with you tomorrow after Prof. Mendelsohn's talk with  the
*first batch of study questions *that we will be discussing during our first
phone call on *Tuesday, October 6th*.

I’m very much looking forward to experiencing Origin with you and please
don’t hesitate to contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns!

Best,
Stephanie
-- 
Stephanie W. Aktipis, Ph.D.
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Harvard University

Sophomore Advising Coordinator
Resident Tutor
Cabot House
100 Walker Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
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