Speaker Bio

Currently a professor of geography at UCLA, Diamond is the author of Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, a major international bestseller that inspired an international museum exhibit; Guns, Germs, and Steel (also subject of a 3-part PBS special); The Third Chimpanzee; and Why Is Sex Fun?

Recognition for his work include a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant, The Conservation Medals of the Zoological Society of San Diego, The Carr Medal, the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and Japan’s International Cosmos Prize. In 2000, he was awarded the USA’s highest civilian scientific award, The National Medal of Science, for his landmark research and breakthrough discoveries in evolutionary biology.

Discussion Topics

Developed by the Diamond faculty team for his campus visit

What should we be doing as a liberal arts college to fully engage students and challenge them to think in meaningful ways about the societal issues discussed in Collapse?

Is it possible to take advantage of some of the inherent tensions in a book like Collapse (e.g., environmental determinism vs. cultural dynamism) to engage students in a problem-centered (or inquiry-based) manner rather than simply lecturing and presenting these case studies as fact?

How do we really open our students to the relevance (or lessons) of past societies/civilizations when they (our students) tend to be almost exclusively focused on the present and future? In other words — how do we truly engage them so they are not simply playing along, nodding their heads, and agreeing that looking at past societies is important?

Diamond FACULTY TEAM LEADERS

Dr. Thomas Lairson, Gelbman Professor of International Business & Professor of Political Science

Dr. Lee Lines, Maher Associate Professor of Distinguished Teaching & Associate Professor of Environmental Studies