Overview for Graduate Students
Click here for fact sheet and guidelines for joining EvoS
The graduate component of EvoS is designed to be taken in conjunction with your major concentration and results in a certificate in Evolutionary Studies issued by the Office of the Provost along with your degree. Participating in EvoS should not be regarded as a diversion from your major concentration but as a way of advancing your professional development. Virtually all subjects relevant to biology and human affairs are being approached from an evolutionary perspective. A sophisticated knowledge of evolution is increasingly seen as an asset on one’s vita. In addition, EvoS exemplifies the concept of integration across disciplines that is becoming the wave of the future in education, research, and many professions outside the ivory tower.
EvoS offers opportunities to graduate students that they would not have otherwise. You will become part of a transdisciplinary community of faculty, graduate students, and motivated undergraduate students from all departments. Some of these people will be highly relevant to your area of interest but are difficult to encounter given the traditional departmental structure of universities. You can help to decide graduate-level course offerings and interact with renown scientists and scholars from other institutions. As an advanced graduate student, you can teach undergraduates and involve them in your research to your mutual advantage. EvoS-sponsored activities have already resulted in a number of new projects with graduate research and training components, some instigated by faculty and others directly by graduate students. As the program becomes established, there will increasingly be financial resources to support these activities.
Most graduate students should begin by taking the introductory course Evolution and Human Affairs (Biol 570), which is intended to get everyone “on the same page” with respect to evolutionary theory as a conceptual framework that can be applied across disciplines. This course is taught once a week in the evening to allow maximum participation. Students will have an opportunity to explore their own interests from an evolutionary perspective in addition to learning basic principles and a sample of transdisciplinary research taking place at BU through guest lectures by EvoS faculty, advanced EvoS graduate students, and advanced graduate students who conduct evolutionary research at other institutions.
The introductory course can be taken by itself, regardless of subsequent participation in EvoS. Students who wish to enter the program should dowload and follow the guidelines. Sixteen credit hours (including the introductory course) are required to earn the certificate: The 2-credit "Current topics" course built around the EvoS seminar series must be taken twice. Other courses can be drawn from permanent courses, special topic seminars, permanent courses outside the program supplemented with evolutionary material, and credits earned through teaching, independent study and thesis research as outlined in more detail below.
In recognition that graduate students already have a demanding schedule of courses and research, credits can simultaneously satisfy degree and certificate requirements. This may not be true for each and every course, but it will make it feasible to earn the certificate along with your degree. One reason for tailoring the curriculum to each student is to maximize compatibility with the student’s degree program on a case-by-case basis. There is a breadth requirement, such that at least one course must be in a subject area different than the student’s concentration (i.e., a biology graduate student would need to take one course outside of biology, and so on). There is also a requirement to take a 2-credit graduate seminar offered every semester and built around the EvoS seminar series, which brings distinguished external speakers to campus at roughly two-week intervals. The course consists of readings and discussions in preparation for each speaker and a discussion with the speaker over food that follows each seminar. Few programs offer graduate students the opportunity to interact with some of the greatest scientists and scholars of our day in this manner.
