Under the direction of Dr. John Beatty of the University of Minnesota, Dr. James Collins of Arizona State University, and Dr. Gregg Mitman of the University of Oklahoma, this `Small Grant for Training and Research`(SGTR) will provide a cohort of graduate students and a postdoctoral fellow with the methodological and analytical skills to investigate particular historical, philosophical and scientific issues related to the natural historical sciences in the 20th century. The unifying issues of this SGTR center on the ways in which the `natural historical sciences` have been distinguished as a group from the rest of biology. The three PI's believe that despite changes in the way this distinction has been drawn, there is considerable historical continuity to the tradition of distinguishing the natural historical sciences from more laboratory-based disciplines. They have organized their teaching and research around two general respects in which the natural historical sciences have been seen as distinct: 1) with respect to conceptions of nature and what is natural, and 2) with respect to the importance of history. In order to give the students a fuller understanding and appreciation of the natural historical sciences, they are not relying on documents alone, but will also provide field natural historical experience. Through this program, students will explore various dimensions and unique aspects of natural history in the 20th century within a cohort/community learning environment that draws upon the experience of an ecologist (Collins), an historian of ecology (Mitman) and a philosopher/historian of evolutionary biology (Beatty), each of whom is engaged with these issues in their own research. The program is designed as a traveling seminar. The cohort of five graduate students from Arizona State, Minnesota, and Oklahoma universities, and a postdoctoral fellow will travel to each respective institution for one semester where they will participate in a seminar led by the faculty member of that institution and engage in field research. In the fourth semester, the students will return to their home institution. The postdoc will help the PI's in the development of the seminars, serve as liaison between students and faculty and conduct his/her own research.
