The Life and Science of Ernest Everett Just

Catalog description

Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941) was one of the most important developmental biologists of the first half of the twentieth century. He made important observations, discoveries, and contributions to the scientific debate regarding the mechanisms of fertilization and early embryonic development. E.E. Just authored over 70 scientific papers and two books during his relatively short life; he died at age 57. E. E. Just was also a Black man who was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina during the post-reconstruction white redemption; a period characterized by restrictive Jim Crow laws and Klu Klux Klan violence against Black people in the South. This course will explore the life of E. E. Just in the context of his contributions to science, his life as a Black man growing up in the Jim Crow South, and as a Black scientist during a period in American history when racially discriminatory laws and customs at multiple levels prohibited or severely limited the ability of Blacks to participate in the field of scientific research. In so doing, this interdisciplinary course will connect scientific and humanistic disciplines by bringing together students interested in biology, American history, African American history, and the history of science to explore and critically analyze aspects of Just's life and science from these various perspectives. Offered as AFST 233 and BIOL 233 and HSTY 233 . Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.