Sex, Gender, and Evolutionary Biology

Sex, Gender, and Evolutionary Biology is a Natural Science class taught by Sarah Richardson.

Course Description
Evolutionary biology is said to explain human gender roles, sexual preferences, and sex differences in behavior and cognition, including rape, monogamy, pornography, homosexuality, physical attraction, and maternal instinct. This course examines these and other controversial claims. We will read the scientific literature and its critiques and consider the social, historical, and ideological dimensions of evolutionary concepts of human sex and gender difference.

Class Wiki Project
Many specialized terms are used in human behavioral and evolutionary biology and in interdisciplinary debates surrounding it. Our class will build a Wiki defining key specialized terms and concepts used in this field of research. The Wiki will serve as a glossary for the class and an epistemological map of this multifaceted field; it will also become a public resource. You must contribute at least 3 definitions of key terms over the course of the semester and show evidence of contributions to overall editing and completion of the Wiki. Our TA, Martina, will moderate and oversee the development of the Wiki and help provide feedback on your entries.

Assignment guidelines

How to add and edit your Wiki entry

How to improve the Wiki

Class Wiki: Key terms in evolutionary biology of sex, gender, and sexuality

 * Adaptation
 * Anisogamy
 * Anthropomorphism
 * Biological Determinism
 * Byproduct vs. Adaptation
 * Courtship 
 * Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation (EEA)
 * Estrus
 * Evolutionary Psychology
 * Extra Pair Copulation
 * Extended Sexuality
 * Extrapolation
 * Female Mate Choice
 * Good Genes 
 * Homosexuality
 * Humanism
 * Infanticide
 * Intersexuality
 * Just-So Stories
 * Male Parenting
 * Mate Guarding
 * Maternal-Fetal Conflict
 * Maternal Instinct
 * Menstruation 
 * Naturalism
 * Orgasm
 * Parent-Offspring Conflict
 * Parental Investment Theory
 * Pheromones
 * Rape
 * Recreational Sex
 * Selfish Gene
 * Sex vs. Gender 
 * Sperm Competition
 * Symmetry
 * Waist-to-Hip Ratio
 * Victorian Conception of Sex Differences
 * War