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年发生的一项以前不为人知的进化论试验的研究；这是美国第一次关于进化论教学的法庭之争，发生在臭名昭著的斯科普斯审判的一年前，到目前为止，斯科普斯审判被认为是第一次这样的审判。他将以1924年进化论试验的发现为基础，在美国发展公众对进化论及其历史的理解的新学术研究。研究人员将通过出版一本书、在同行评议的学术期刊和流行的主流出版物上发表文章，向广大读者传播这项研究的结果。这个项目建立在研究者以前的学术工作的基础上，扩展了他对STS与其他学科之间关系的研究，包括残疾研究、移民研究和教育政策领域。在美国历史上发现了一个未知的进化审判，它取代了1925年臭名昭著的scope审判，成为已知最早的审判，这本身就是开创性的，并有望对STS和美国历史的研究做出重大贡献。这个项目不仅仅是唤起人们对这一未知事件的关注，它还对公众对科学的理解和教师作为公众接受科学的争议中心人物的历史变化产生了新的见解。该项目还将探索该案件的原告，一位身有残疾的宾夕法尼亚荷兰人，是如何理解自己作为科学知识调解人的角色的。因此，本项目探索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如何塑造一个人履行知识中介角色的方式。它有望迫使对历史演变及其在教育政策中的应用进行实质性修订，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进行更大的接触。

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.