NCS 06 — From Dinosaurs to Dodos: Unnatural Histories of Extinction
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Alison Laurence
Date(s): Jan 29—Mar 5
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 6:30—8:20 pm (PT)
Tuition: $415
Refund Deadline: Jan 31
Unit(s): 1
Enrollment Limit: 55
Status: Open
Quarter: Winter
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 6 weeks
Time: 6:30—8:20 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 29—Mar 5
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $415
Refund Deadline: Jan 31
Instructor(s): Alison Laurence
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Enrollment Limit: 55
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Open
Extinction is a natural part of life—over 90 percent of all species that ever lived have vanished—but human activity has accelerated this process into what some scientists call the “sixth mass extinction.” This course invites students to explore the mysteries of disappearance and survival with a sense of scientific and cultural curiosity. Through vivid case studies—the flightless dodo, the vanished passenger pigeon, California’s grizzly bear, the Xerces blue butterfly, and the dramatic comeback of the American bison—we’ll investigate how biology, human behavior, and conservation shape species’ fates. We’ll also look ahead to provocative possibilities: genetic experiments on dire wolves, efforts to revive the woolly mammoth, and the way speculative fiction, from Ray Bradbury’s dinosaur safari to Jurassic Park, shapes public understanding of lost and resurrected species. Through lectures and short discussions, students will trace the forces driving extinction, evaluate conservation’s successes and challenges, and consider the scientific and ethical dilemmas of de-extinction.
ALISON LAURENCE
Lecturer, UC Santa Cruz
Alison Laurence is a cultural historian of extinction who writes about dinosaurs. She received a PhD in history, anthropology, science, technology & society (HASTS) from MIT. She has taught courses at Stanford on storytelling, animal history, and existential threats, and she is an editor for Contingent Magazine. She has recently published essays about extinction in The Los Angeles Review of Books and The Rumpus.Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Lydia Pyne, Endlings: Fables for the Anthropocene (ISBN 978-1517914837)