Scholars Award: Bringing to Light a Court Case over the Teaching of Evolution in American Schools that Preceded the Scopes Trial

该奖项支持对1924年发生的一场以前不为人知的进化论审判的研究；这是美国第一场关于进化论教学的法庭斗争，发生在臭名昭著的斯科普斯审判之前一年，到目前为止，这一直被认为是第一次这样的审判。这位研究人员将在他对1924年进化试验的发现的基础上，开发关于公众对进化及其在美国历史的理解的新学术。研究人员将通过出版一本书以及在学术同行评议期刊和流行主流出版物上发表文章，向广大受众传达这项研究的结果。这个项目建立在研究人员以前的学术工作的基础上，并扩展了他对STS与其他学科之间关系的探索，包括残疾研究、移民研究和教育政策领域。技术综述美国历史上一次未知的进化试验的发现，取代了1925年臭名昭著的Scope试验，成为已知的最早的试验，本身就是开创性的，并有望对STS和美国历史的研究做出重大贡献。这个项目不仅仅是通过对公众对科学的理解以及教师作为公众接受科学争议中心的一个人物的历史变化的新见解，来引起人们对这一未知事件的关注。该项目还将探索审判的原告，一名宾夕法尼亚州残疾荷兰男子，如何理解他作为科学知识调解人的角色。因此，这个项目探索了STS和残疾研究领域之间的新的智力联系，通过检查一个人的健康或残疾身份塑造了一个人扮演知识中介人的角色的方式。它承诺将迫使对历史演变及其在教育政策中的使用进行重大修改，并通过对正在进行的讨论的贡献，鼓励政策制定者与科学技术社会研究之间的更多接触。

General Audience Summary This award supports research on a previously unknown trial on evolution that took place in 1924; it is America's first courtroom battle over the teaching of evolution, having occurred one year prior to the infamous Scopes trial, which has until now been regarded as the first such trial. The researcher will develop new scholarship on public understanding of evolution and its history in the United States, based on his discovery of the 1924 evolution trial. The researcher will communicate the results of this research to a broad audience by the publication of a book and by articles in both academic peer-reviewed journals and in popular mainstream publications. This project builds on previous scholarly work of the researcher and expands his inquiries into the relationship between STS and other disciplines, including fields of disability studies, migration studies, and education policy. Technical Summary The discovery of an unknown evolution trial in American history, one that supplants the infamous Scopes trial of 1925 as the earliest known trial, is itself groundbreaking and promises to make a significant contribution to the study of STS and US history. This project goes beyond simply calling attention to this unknown event by developing new insights into both the public understanding of science and the historically changing place of the schoolteacher as a figure in the center of controversies over public acceptance of science. The project will also explore the way that the trial's plaintiff, a Pennsylvania Dutch man with a disability, understood his role as a mediator of scientific knowledge. As such, this project explores new intellectual connections between the fields of STS and disability studies by examining the way that one's identity as fit or disabled shaped the way one could perform the role of knowledge mediator. It promises to compel a substantial revision in the history evolution and its use in education policy, and to encourage greater engagement between policy makers and the social studies of science and technology by its contribution to ongoing discussions.