Science, Activism, and Feathered Pigs: Conservation Biology and the California Condor

Since its inception in the 1980s conservation biologists have defined their field as a “mission-oriented” discipline. Most conservation biologists have carefully avoided calling themselves activists, yet their approach has become a model for scientific advocacy in a wide variety of environmental debates. What role has this mission-oriented science actually played in biodiversity conservation? What sorts of problems have conservation biologists encountered in their efforts to “go public?” And what has thus far prevented conservation biology from achieving its potential as a focused force for change in American environmental politics? The case of the California condor illustrates some of the unexpected—and often paradoxical—quandaries that conservation biologists have encountered in their work. It also demonstrates how practitioners in the field have attempted to delicately negotiate a treacherous political, economic, and ideological landscape in their attempts to bring science to the aid of an endangered species.

The colloquium will be led by Peter S. Alagona, Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, UCLA