Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Dirk Robert Johnson, associate professor of modern languages at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, will speak about his scholarly work on the intellectual interaction between Darwin and Nietzsche at 3:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 9, in 105 Cameron Hall at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Johnson's speech titled, "Nietzsche's 'Anti-Darwinism': The Origins and Development of an Antagonism," discusses Darwin's influence on the evolution of Nietzsche's thought. He is visiting UNC Wilmington as a guest of the Evolution Learning Community, a campus-wide initiative to encourage interdisciplinary study and discussion about Charles Darwin, evolution and related issues, and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

Johnson teaches German language, literature and culture, and he is a member of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society. He has published articles in international journals and presented numerous papers at American and international conferences. Johnson is a contributing member of the Nietzsche Research Group, based at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Holland. The Nietzsche Dictionary (de Gruyter) will publish Johnson's entry on Gattung, or species, in its forthcoming second volume. His published work has been cited by numerous Nietzsche scholars, and his book, Nietzsche's Anti-Darwinism, has recently been accepted for publication.

The UNCW Evolution Learning Community has sponsored numerous guest speakers and activities over the past three years, leading to the celebration this year of the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. 2009 is being celebrated worldwide as "The Year of Darwin."

A complete listing of UNCW Evolution Learning Community events can be found at http://library.uncw.edu/web/outreach/evolution.

Media contact:

Dana Fischetti, media relations manager, 910.962.7259 or fischettid@uncw.edu