Constance Sommerey will defend her PhD dissertation ‘The Ghost in the Classroom: Ernst Haeckel’s Rhetoric of Evolution and Its Reverberations in German Biology Textbooks (1925-1958)’. The defence takes place in the Aula, Minderbroedersberg, on Friday 23 October 2015, 14.00-16.00.
Constance introduces a rhetorical perspective to Haeckel reception studies and demonstrates how Haeckelian rhetorical elements were appropriated by Weimar Republic, Third Reich and post-war West German textbook authors, thereby contributing to the posthumous impact of Haeckel on the German public understanding of evolution.
Promotor: Lies Wesseling.
