Café Social Science is a series of informal discussions about the questions surrounding the social science field today, led by Columbia University's foremost professors. The discussions are held at the Picnic Market Café at 2665 Broadway (between 101st and 102nd streets).

Space is limited; $10 cover (cash only) includes one drink
Social Science on Us, First Come, First Served
NO RSVP Necessary

To join our Café Social Science event distribution list or for more information about Café Social Science, contact us at cafesocialscience@columbia.edu.

Fall 2009 Series on the Upper West Side:

Sex and Death in the Galapagos
Science Writer Jonathan Weiner
October 26, 6–7 p.m.

Evolution is the single greatest idea in the science of life. And to take in the view, there’s no place on earth like Darwin’s Islands. How does natural selection drive the branching of the tree of life? How does our own success as a species drive the evolution of life around us? “Origin of all my views,” Darwin called the Galapagos--the origin of The Origin of Species. By going back to the archipelago year after year, biologists are now seeing things that Darwin did not imagine could be seen at all.

Transnational Baby Making
International Human Rights Lawyer and Sociologist Yasmine Ergas ’94LAW
November 23, 6–7 p.m.

Babies are increasingly being “made” across national borders. A U.K. “mother” may commission an Indian “mother” to bear her a child with the eggs provided by a Columbia University student. What happens if the Indian mother does not want to give up the child? A woman in New Zealand has casual sex with an American. What happens if he claims paternity rights? Is the mother the woman who bears the child? The woman who donates the eggs? The woman who hires the surrogate? Is the casual lover more like a marriage partner or a sperm donor? Is the United Kingdom obligated to recognize the child born in India as its citizen? What if the contracting mother comes from the United States or Germany? Come hear how courts worldwide are grappling with these problems. What happens to the children and their families if courts disagree?

Unnatural Selection: Population Control and the Struggle to Remake Humanity
Historian Matthew Connelly ’90CC
December 28, 6–7 p.m.

In the past century, the world’s population has grown more than four times as much as in the previous 2,000 centuries. By controlling migration, manipulating birthrates and sterilizing the “unfit,” scientists and activists struggled to prevent the meek from inheriting the earth. The talk will describe how these opposing forms of population control developed, how they diverged and how the cause of reproductive rights was finally redeemed.