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Photo of Edward J. Larson, Ph.D.

Edward J. Larson, Ph.D.
University Professor and Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law

Office: School of Law (SOL)
E-mail:

  • Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1984
  • J.D., Harvard University, 1979
  • M.A., University of Wisconsin, 1976
  • B.A., Williams College, 1974

SSRN Author Page

The author of nine books and nearly one hundred published articles, Edward Larson teaches, lectures, and writes about issues of law, politics, science, and medicine from an historical perspective. His books include A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign (2008), Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (2004), Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South (1995), Trial and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution (1985, 1989, and 2002 expanded editions) and the Pulitzer Prize winning Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion (1997). His latest book, An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science (2011) was a finalist for the 2012 Hessell-Tiltman Prize in History. Larson's articles have appeared in such varied journals as American History, Nature, Atlantic Monthly, Scientific American, Isis, The Nation, Wall Street Journal, Wilson Quarterly, The Georgia Review, Constitutional Commentary, and over a dozen different law reviews. He is the co-author or co-editor of six additional books, including The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison (2005).

The recipient of several awards for excellence in teaching, Larson has taught courses in first-year property and health-care law for over twenty years at the University of Georgia and Pepperdine University. In 2013, he will be an Inaugural Fellow for the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. Larson served as a visiting professor of law at Stanford University in 2012 and was a visiting professor teaching American Constitutional Law at the University of Melbourne in 2011. He is the author of a widely-used property law casebook. His undergraduate course on the history of evolution theory is available on CD from The Teaching Company. Larson taught for twenty years at the University of Georgia before accepting his position at Pepperdine and continues to serve as a Senior Fellow at the University of Georgia's Institute of Higher Education.

Larson also lectures widely and participates in conferences and academic programs. He has delivered endowed or named addresses at dozens of colleges or universities, including Duke University, California Institute of Technology, Yale University, and Vanderbilt University, and spoken to scientific, legal, judicial, and medical groups across the country. Larson was a resident scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study Center in 1996, delivered the Fulbright Program's John Adams Chair in American Studies for 2001; was the AAAS's Sarton Award Lecture in 2000; participated in the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Writers and Artists program in 2003-04; and received an honorary doctorate degree from Ohio State University in 2004. From 2006 to 2009, he was a panelist on the National Institutes of Health's Study Section for Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues of the Human Genome Project. He is interviewed frequently for broadcast and print media, including The Daily Show and multiple appearances on PBS, BBC, the History Channel, C-SPAN, and NPR. He earned a B.A. from Williams College, a J.D. from Harvard, and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Key Awards/Affiliations
  • Fulbright Senior Scholar, John Adams Chair
  • 2003-04, Participant, Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, National Science Foundation,
  • 2003 American Spirit Award, Conference on Southern Literature,
  • 2001 Christ-Janer Award for Outstanding Research in the Humanities, Univ. of GA,
  • 2000-01 John Adams Chair of American History, Fulbright Program, University of Leiden, The Netherlands,
  • 2000 George Sarton Lecture, American Association for Advancement of Science,
  • 1999 National Civil Liberties Award, American Civil Liberties Union,
  • 1998 Pulitzer Prize for History,
  • 1998 American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award Finalist,
  • 1998 Washington State Governor's Writers Award,
  • 1998 Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge Certificate of Recognition,
  • 1997 Templeton Prize for Outstanding Article in Science and Religion,
  • Resident Scholar, Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study Center, Italy, 1996,
  • Richard B. Russell Award for Undergraduate Teaching, University of Georgia, 1992,
  • Parks-Heggoy Award for Excellence in Teaching History, University of Georgia, 1989,
  • University Fellow, University of Wisconsin, 1983-84,
  • Member, Phi Beta Kappa, Williams College, 1974,

Publications


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