Scopes Centennial

One hundred years ago, a trial took place in a small Tennessee town called Dayton that forever changed how we discuss science, faith and education. During the Scopes Centennial, Vanderbilt will explore how far we’ve come.

Science Classroom

Scopes Trial Centennial

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Marks the 100th anniversary of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial," in which a Tennessee high school science teacher, John Scopes, was found guilty of teaching the science of human evolution. The trial received worldwide attention and began public discussions on science and education that continue to this day. 

Programming throughout the spring will examine how evolutionary concepts are critical to understanding our world and tackling existential challenges like pandemics, climate change and food insecurity. Scopes Centennial will dissect this misunderstood science, which need not antagonize religion, and examine modern challenges to its teaching from scientific, religious and legal perspectives. 

Scopes Trial Centennial Events

  • January 29 — American Religious Landscape During the Scopes Trial

    January 29, at 1:00 PM, in Vanderbilt Divinity School, Room 124, join us for a conversation with American Religious History professors James Hudnut-Beumler and James Byrd. The discussion will contextualize the American religious landscape in 1925, when John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in a school in Dayton, Tennessee. Lunch will be provided.

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  • February 11 — Darwin Day Lecture with Richard Dawkins and David French

    February 11, at 5:00 PM, Dialogue Vanderbilt is excited to host the inaugural public event in its Scopes Centennial series. Richard Dawkins will join noted New York Times Columnist and Dialogue Vanderbilt Fellow David French to discuss the role of science in illuminating fundamental questions about what it means to be human and the current impact of evolution on our politics, society and the world. 

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  • February 13 — Brenda Wineapple Book Talk: Understanding the Scopes Trial 100 Years Later

    February 13, at 12:10 PM, in Flynn Auditorium, Vanderbilt Law School, Brenda Wineapple will discuss her book Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trail That Riveted A Nation. The Barrett Lecture and Dean's Lecture Series will explore the Scopes "Monkey" Trial and the early years of the twentieth century, racism, intolerance, and world war through this pivotal legal showdown. At its heart, the Scopes trial dramatized conflicts over many fundamental values that define America and continue to divide Americans today.

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  • February 19 — Veritas Forum: Mind, Matter, and Meaning 

    February 19 at 7:00 pm, in Fuhrman Hall room 114, The Veritas Forum, in partnership with Vanderbilt students, presents Mind, Matter, and Meaning: A Philosopher and a Geneticist will discuss our Purpose, Beliefs, and What makes us Human. Attendees will explore the lingering questions from the Scopes Trial in a civil discussion with philosophy professor Scott Aikin and genetics professor Praveen Sethupathy. Vanderbilt student Elisa Ajamian will moderate the dialogue. 

  • February 20 — Darwin Day Insight Debate

    February 20, after the Darwin Day lecture, Vanderbilt students are invited to explore the topic further within the Insight Debate structure to understand better arguments for scientific and religious freedom within our society and possibly something new about their own ideas.

  • February 25 — John T. Scopes Lecture with Judge John Jones III

    February 25, at 5:30 PM, in the Central Library Community Room, Judge John Jones III will discuss his landmark 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District decision.  Judge Jones ruled that teaching intelligent design in public school science classes was unconstitutional. In conversation with Vanderbilt Law Professor and noted First Amendment Scholar Francesca Procaccini, Jones will discuss science and science education in the courtroom. 

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  • March 6 — The Dover Panda Trial Play Reading

    March 6, at 7 PM, John de Lancie, best known for his role as "Q" in the Star Trek franchise, brings his play about the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover School District trial of eleven parents who objected to their children being taught intelligent design as an alternative to the theory of evolution to Sarratt Cinema. The six-week Trial concluded with Judge John E. Jones III issuing an opinion that intelligent design was a religious view and not a scientific theory, a standard used in public schools for the subsequent decades.  

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  • March 27 — Divisive Concepts Law Roundtable

    March 27, at 12:10 PM, in the Flynn Auditorium, Vanderbilt Law School, the panel will bring together experts in law, social sciences, humanities, and education to explore the implications of Divisive Concepts Laws—legislation that restricts discussions or teaching of certain topics in schools and workplaces. Through an interdisciplinary lens, panelists will examine how these laws shape educational curricula and consider the broader impact of court rulings on academic freedom, drawing historical parallels to landmark cases such as the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial.

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  • July 12-13 — Scopes “Monkey” Trial Centennial Symposium

    July 12-13, Vanderbilt will host an academic symposium featuring nearly two dozen of the world’s most preeminent scholars of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial, the history of creationism, evolution, and evolution education. This event is sponsored in part by the National Center for Science Education.  The symposium will cover six major topics: The History of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial, Modern Challenges to Teaching Evolution, Evolution Today, Applications of Evolutionary Concepts in Other Fields, Teaching Evolution, and the Relationship between Evolution and Religion.

    Register to attend