Biography:

Dr. Haiyan Yang is an associate professor in the Department of Medical Humanities at Peking University and is currently a visiting scholar (through July 2009) in the Department of History and Philosophy (HPS) at the University of Cambridge. With an educational background first in biology and subsequently in the history and philosophy of science, her research focus on history of biology (especially intellectual history and social history of evolutionism), medical humanities, and scientific communication. Her publication includes various articles, such as Inquiry into the Meaning of Evolution, Non-Darwinian Revolution and the Idea of Progress, The Central Question of the Controversies between Gould and Dawkins, The Humanistic Spirit in Medicine, Population Health and the Relational Conceptions of Justice. At present, she is working on two major projects. The first one is a book on the relation of evolution and progress, with the case of Robert Chambers Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation and its reception. The second one is Darwin Now Network between the Department of HPS at Cambridge and the Department of Philosophy at Peking University, aiming to establish a long-term network of communication and collaboration investigating the global spread of Darwinism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, focused particularly on the problem of human evolution

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