10/26/2026
Dear Members of the Campus Community,
Please mark your calendars for the 54th John D. Regester Lecture and reception featuring Professor Kristin Johnson (Science, Health, Technology, and Society) on Thursday, Nov. 12th. There will be a reception at 5 p.m. followed by the lecture at 5:30 p.m. The event will take place in the Tahoma Room in Thomas Hall.
Professor Johnson's lecture, "Dealing with Darwin," explores how more complicated and accurate histories improve our ability to navigate issues that concern science in the present. The lecture will take on common yet historically inaccurate tales about Charles Darwin to illustrate why doing history with close attention to both context and primary sources is important.
Professor Johnson’s research focuses on the history of the life sciences, especially the naturalist tradition. Her books include an historical novel The Species Maker (2021), a fictional exploration of debates over evolution in the 1920s, Imagining Progress: Science, Faith, and Child Mortality in America (2024) and Darwin’s Falling Sparrow: Victorian Evolutionists and the Meaning of Suffering (2024). Her research is driven by the teaching she does in the Science, Technology, Health and Society Program, where her courses include: Apes, Angels, and Darwin; Evolution and Society Since Darwin; Natural History Museums and Society; Medicine in the U.S. - Historical Perspectives; History of Public Health; and Evolution and Ethics.
This John D. Regester Lecture series, established in 1965 in honor of John Regester, serves as a tribute to his profound impact on the university. As a means of honoring faculty members who embody scholarship and intellectual integrity, the series allows the chosen lecturer to address the community on a topic of significant interest.
We look forward to your attendance.
Andrew Kerkhoff | Provost