Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae
RICHARD WEIKART

January 2013

OFFICE ADDRESS: 
Department of History
California State University, Stanislaus
Turlock, CA 95382
OFFICE TELEPHONE: (209) 667-3522 or 667-3238

E-MAIL: rweikart@csustan.edu

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D., 1994, University of Iowa
    • Primary field: Modern European History
    • Specializations: Modern Germany, European Intellectual History
  • M.A., 1989, Texas Christian University
    • Major: Modern European History
  • B.A., summa cum laude, 1980, Texas Christian University

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • 2004-present, Professor, 1999-2004, Associate Professor; 1994-99, Assistant Professor, California State University, Stanislaus
  • 2012-13, 2003-2009, Chair, Department of History, California State University, Stanislaus.

AWARDS AND PRIZES

  • Outstanding Research Professor, 2004-05, California State University, Stanislaus.
  • Outstanding Research Award, 2004, College of Arts, Letters and Sciences, California State University, Stanislaus.
  • Templeton/American Scientific Affiliation Lecture Series Contest, 2004, Second Prize for the video lecture, “From Darwin to Hitler” Available for viewing on-line at: webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/8987.rm
  • Elected to the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, 2000.
  • Forum for History of Human Science 1996 bienniel prize for the best recent dissertation in the history of human science.
  • Selma V. Forkosch Prize for the best article in the Journal of the History of Ideas in 1993.

FELLOWSHIPS AND RESEARCH GRANTS

  • Difference-in-pay leave from CSU, Stanislaus, 2007-08, to complete the manuscript for Hitler’s Ethic.
  • Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Grant from California State University, Stanislaus, 2005-06, 2007-08; grant for travel to archives in Washington, DC, Hoover Institution, and UC-Berkeley (for book project,Hitler’s Ethic).
  • Sabbatical from CSU, Stanislaus, 2000-2001, to write first draft of a book, “Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Devaluing Human Life in Germany.”
  • Research Fellowships from the Center for Science and Culture, 2000-2001, 1998-99, 1997; partial funding for a sabbatical and released time, plus funding for three trips to archives in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Poland.
  • Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Grants from California State University, Stanislaus, 2000-2001, 1999-2000, 1998-99, 1997-98, 1996-97, 1995-96; grants for research assistants and funds for travel to European archives, UC-Berkeley, Stanford, and the Hoover Institution.
  • Grants Incentive Program, California State University, Stanislaus, Summer 1995; a grant for research trips to UC-Berkeley, Stanford, and the Hoover Institution.
  • Fulbright Fellowship, 1992-93, for dissertation research at the University of Bonn, Germany.
  • Gordon Prange Fellowship, spring 1993, for dissertation research in European archives.
  • University of Iowa Fellowship, 1989-92, offered to the top 20-25 entering graduate students in the entire university.

PUBLICATIONS

(a) BOOKS

(b) CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

  • “A History of the Impact of Darwinism on Bioethics,” in 150 Years of Evolution: Darwin’s Impact on the Humanities and Social Sciences, ed. Mark Wheeler. San Diego: San Diego State University Press, 2011.
  • “Hitler’s Struggle for Existence against Slavs: Anthropology, Racial Theory and Vacillations in Nazi Policy toward Czechs and Poles,” in Eradicating Differences: The Treatment of Minorities in Nazi-Dominated Europe, ed. Anton Weiss-Wendt. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010. Pp. 61-83.
  • “The Impact of Social Darwinism on Antisemitic Ideology in Germany and Austria, 1860-1945,” in Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Evolution, ed. Geoffrey Cantor and Marc Swetlitz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Pp. 93-115.
  • “‘Evolutionäre Aufklärung’? Zur Geschichte des Monistenbundes” (“‘Evolutionary Enlightenment’? A History of the Monist League”), in Wissenschaft, Politik, und Öffentlichkeit: Von der Wiener Moderne bis zur Gegenwart (Science, Politics, and the Public Sphere: From Modernist Vienna to the Present), ed. Mitchell G. Ash and Christian H. Stifter. Vienna: WUV Universitätsverlag, 2002. Pp. 131-48.

(c) JOURNAL ARTICLES

  • “Was Darwin or Spencer the Father of Laissez-Faire Social Darwinism?” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (special issue on social Darwinism) 71 (2009): 20-28.
  • “Does Darwinism Devalue Human Life?” Human Life Review 30, 2 (Spring 2004): 29-37.
  • “Progress through Racial Extermination: Social Darwinism, Eugenics, and Pacifism in Germany, 1860-1918,” German Studies Review 26 (2003): 273-94.
  • “Darwinism and Death: Devaluing Human Life in Germany, 1860-1920,” Journal of the History of Ideas 63 (2002): 323-344.
  • “Laissez-Faire Social Darwinism and Individualist Competition in Darwin and Huxley,” The European Legacy 3 (1998): 17-30.
  • “A Recently Discovered Darwin Letter on Social Darwinism,” Isis 86 (1995): 609-11.
  • “Marx, Engels, and the Abolition of the Family,” History of European Ideas 18 (1994): 657-72.
  • “The Origins of Social Darwinism in Germany, 1859-1895,” Journal of the History of Ideas 54 (1993): 469-88.
  • “Scripture and Myth in Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” Fides et Historia 25 (1993): 12-25.

(d) ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES

  • “Ludwig Büchner,” “Houston Stewart Chamberlain,” “Karl Marx,” “Karl Vogt,” and “August Weismann,” in A Historical Dictionary of the Darwin Controversies (Athens: Atiner Press, 2005).
  • “Eugenics” and “Social Darwinism,” in Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, ed. Carl Mitcham (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005).
  • “Eugenics,” “Scientific Racism,” and “Social Darwinism,” in Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution, ed. Richard Levy (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2005).
  • “Mendel,” in Encyclopedia of Science and Religion (Detroit: Gale Group, 2003).
  • “Hugo De Vries,” in World of Genetics (Detroit: Gale Group, 2001).
  • “Sociobiology,” “Human Genome Project,” “E. O. Wilson,” “Thomas Malthus,” “August Weismann,” “Francis Galton,” “Konrad Lorenz,” and “Anton Dohrn,” in Science and Its Times (Detroit: Gale Group, 2000).
  • “Genetics,” in The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia,ed. Gary B. Ferngren. (NY: Garland Publishers, 2000). Pp. 479-80.
  • “Eugenics,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion in American Politics (Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1999). Pp. 92-93.

(e) BOOK REVIEWS AND REVIEW ESSAYS

  • John West, ed., The Magician’s Twin: C. S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society, at Credo magazine website, October 2012.
  • Robert Jütte, et al, Medizin und Nationalsozialismus: Bilanz und Perspektiven der Forschung, in Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (2012), doi: 10.1093/jhmas/jrs030.
  • Udo Benzenhöfer, Euthanasia in Germany before and during the Third Reich in Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 66 (2011): 597-599.
  • “So Many Different Dietrich Bonhoeffers” [reviews eight recent books on Dietrich Bonhoeffer], Trinity Journal 32 NS (2011): 69-81.
  • Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning, in Touchstone 24, 3 (May/June 2011): 42-43.
  • Sheila Faith Weiss, The Nazi Symbiosis: Human Genetics and Politics in the Third Reich, in Journal of the History of Biology 44 (2011): 159-61.
  • Mary Sarotte, 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe, in Fides et Historia 42 (2010): 94-95.
  • Florian Bruns, Medizinethik im Nationalsozialismus: Entwicklungen und Protagonisten in Berlin, in H-German, November 2009.
  • Robert Richards, The Tragic Sense of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought, in Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 45 (2009): 297-99.
  • Ian Dowbiggin, The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century, in Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 64 (2009): 270-71.
  • Carol Poore, Disability in Twentieth-Century German Culture, in American Historical Review 114 (2009): 234-35.
  • Martin Mattulat, Medizinethik in historischer Perspektive: Zum Wandel ärztlicher Moralkonzepte im Werk von Georg Benno Gruber (1884-1977), in H-German, January 2009.
  • Ulf Schmidt and Andreas Frewer, eds., History and Theory of Human Experimentation: The Declaration of Helsinki and Modern Medical Ethics, in H-German, November 2008.
  • Eric Ehrenreich, The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution, in German Studies Review 31 (2008): 625-26.
  • Othmar Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches: Adolf Hitlers “Mein Kampf” 1922-1945, in H-German, April 2008.
  • Max Domarus, The Complete Hitler: A Digital Desktop Reference to His Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945, and Max Domarus, The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentaries, in H-German, April 2008.
  • Yael Hashiloni-Dolev, A Life (Un)Worthy of Living: Reproductive Genetics in Israel and Germany, in H-German, March 2008.
  • Marius Turda and Paul Weindling, eds., Blood and Homeland: Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe 1900-1940, in Social History of Medicine 20 (2007): 623-24.
  • “Making a Killing” [reviews Ian Dowbiggin, A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God, and Medicine; Shai Lavi, The Modern Art of Dying: A History of Euthanasia in the United States; and Neil Gorsuch, The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia], in Touchstone, November 2007.
  • Nicholas Eschenbruch, Nursing Stories: Life and Death in a German Hospice, in H-German, June 2007.
  • Wolfgang Eckart, ed., Man, Medicine, and the State: The Human Body as an Object of Government Sponsored Medical Research in the 20th Century, in H-German, Feb. 2007.
  • Naomi Baumslag, Murderous Medicine: Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, and Typhus, in H-German (an H-Net list) February 2006.
  • Edwin Black, War against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race, in Holocaust and Genocide Studies 20 (2006): 329-331.
  • Peter Cohen, “Homo sapiens 1900” (video), in American Historical Review 110 (2005): 1137-38.
  • Jan Sapp, Genesis: The Evolution of Biology, in Isis 96 (2005): 99.
  • Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race, ed. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, in H-German (an H-Net list) (April 2005).
  • Christine Rosen, Preaching Eugenics: Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement, in Journal of Religion 85 (2005): 340-41.
  • Richard T. Gray, About Face: German Physiognomic Thought from Lavater to Auschwitz, in H-German (an H-Net list), February 2005.
  • Claudia Koonz, The Nazi Conscience, in German Studies Review 27 (2004): 643-44.
  • Michael Bulmer. Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Biometry, in Heredity 93 (2004): 522.
  • Barbara Rabi, Ärztliche Ethik-Eine Frage der Ehre? Die Prozesse und Urteile der ärztlichen Ehrengerichtshöfe in Preussen und Sachsen 1918-1933, in German Studies Review 27 (2004): 394-95.
  • Reinhard Mocek, Biologie und soziale Befreiung: Zur Geschichte des Biologismus und der Rassenhygiene in der Arbeiterbewegung, in German Studies Review 27 (2004): 395-96.
  • Richard Steigmann-Gall, The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945, in German Studies Review 27 (2004): 174-76.
  • “Killing Them Kindly: Lessons from the Euthanasia Movement” [reviews Ian Dowbiggin, A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America; N. D. A. Kemp, ‘Merciful Release’: The History of the British Euthanasia Movement; and Wesley J. Smith, Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America], in Books and Culture: A Christian Review (Jan./Feb. 2004), 30-31.
  • Francis R. Nicosia and Jonathan Huener, eds., Medicine and Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany: Origins, Practices, Legacies, on H-German (an H-Net list), February 2003.
  • Steven E. Aschheim, In Times of Crisis: Essays on European Culture, Germans, and Jews, in History: Reviews of New Books 30 (2002): 65.
  • “Father of Eugenics,” [reviews Nicholas Wright Gillham, Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics], in Books and Culture: A Christian Review (May/June 2002): 42.
  • “The Roots of Hitler’s Evil” [reviews Brigitte Hamann, Hitler’s Vienna, and Ian Kershaw, Hitler], in Books and Culture: A Christian Review (Mar./Apr. 2001): 18-21.
  • Udo Benzenhöfer, Der gute Tod? Euthanasie und Sterbehilfe in Geschichte und Gegenwart, in German Studies Review 24 (2001): 665-66.
  • Annette Wittkau-Horgby, Materialismus: Entstehung und Wirkung in den Wissenschaften des 19. Jahrhunderts, in German Studies Review 24 (2001): 609-10.
  • David Livingstone, et al, eds., Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective, in Fides et Historia 33 (2001): 145-46.
  • Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur, in Isis 91 (2000):168-70.
  • Ronald Numbers, Darwinism Comes to America, in Fides et Historia 32 (2000): 171-72.
  • Peter Fritzsche, Germans into Nazis, in Fides et Historia 32 (2000): 142-43.
  • “Brave New China: The Return of Eugenics,” [reviews Frank Dikötter, Imperfect Conceptions: Medical Knowledge, Birth Defects and Eugencis in China] in Books and Culture: A Christian Review (Sept./Oct. 1999): 28-29.
  • Michael Burleigh, Ethics and Extermination: Reflections on Nazi Genocide, in German Studies Review 21 (1998): 622-23.
  • Uwe Gerrens, Medizinisches Ethos und theologische Ethik: Karl und Dietrich Bonhoeffer in der Auseinandersetzung um Zwangssterilisation und Euthanasie in Nationalsozialismus, on H-German (an H-Net list), October 1998.
  • James M. Glass, “Life Unworthy of Life”: Racial Phobia and Mass Murder in Hitler’s Germany, on H-German (an H-Net list), September 1998.
  • Thomas Junker and Marsha Richmond, Charles Darwins Briefwechsel mit deutschen Naturforschern: Ein Kalendarium mit Inhaltsangaben, biographischem Register und Bibliographie, in Isis 89 (1998): 347.
  • Anne Harrington, Reenchanted Science: Holism in German Culture from Wilhelm II to Hitler, in German Studies Review 21 (1998): 159-60.
  • Mike Hawkins, Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945: Nature as Model and Nature as Threat, on H-NEXA (an H-Net list), September 1997.
  • John H. Kautsky, Karl Kautsky: Marxism, Revolution and Democracy, in German Studies Review 20 (1997): 167-68.
  • Diane B. Paul, Controlling Human Heredity, 1865 to the Present, on H-NEXA (an H-Net list), April 1997.
  • “Who Is Dietrich Bonhoeffer for Us Today?: A Review Essay,” Fides et Historia 29 (1997): 72-81.
  • Wolfgang J. Mommsen, Imperial Germany, 1867-1918: Politics, Culture, and Society in an Authoritarian State, in History: Reviews of New Books 24 (1996): 179.
  • John M. Efron, Defenders of the Race: Jewish Doctors and Race Science in Fin-de-Siècle Europe, in German Studies Review 19 (1996): 349-50.
  • Peter Gay, The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Freud, vol. 3: The Cultivation of Hatred, in Fides et Historia 28 (1996): 106-7.

(f) WEB PAGES

INVITED LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS

  • “From Darwin to Hitler to Today: Does Darwinism Devalue Human Life?”
    • Turlock, CA, May 22, 2012
    • Liberty University, Virginia, April 24, 2012
    • William Jessup University, April 12, 2012
  • “Why Ideas Are Important: Reflections of a Christian Historian,” Liberty University, Virginia, April 23, 2012.
  • “Bonhoeffer,” Liberty University, Virginia, April 23, 2012.
  • “Are You the Image of God or a Cosmic Accident?” Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, University of California, Merced, November 2011.
  • “Are You the Image of God or a Cosmic Accident?” Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, Turlock, November 2011.
  • “Intellectuals Divorcing God from the Real World: Confronting the Fact-Value or Science-Faith Divides,” at Reasonable Faith, Central Valley Chapter, Turlock, CA, September 2011.
  • “Intellectuals Divorcing God from the Real World: Confronting the Fact-Value or Science-Faith Divides,” at Cambridge Scholars Network, UK, July 2011.
  • “Evolutionary Ethics and the Undermining of Christian Ethics,” at Cambridge Scholars Network, UK, July 2011.
  • “The Scientific Origins of Nazi Race Theory,” Histories of Race Seminar, Wesleyan University, CT, April 2011.
  • “The Role of Evolutionary Ethics in Nazi Propaganda and Training,” Conference on “Ideologie und Moral im Nationalsozialismus” (“Ideology and Morality in National Socialism”), Hannah Arendt Institut, Dresden, November 2010.
  • Lecture/PowerPoint Presentation on “Hitler’s Ethic”
    • Santa Ana, CA, April 17, 2010
    • Seattle Pacific University, August 9, 2008
  • “Darwinism in Nazi Racial Science,” University of Chicago, March 5, 2010.
  • Lecture/Powerpoint Presentation, “From Darwin to Hitler,” at the following places:
    • California State University, Stanislaus, April 2, 2010
    • Birmingham, AL, Feb. 11, 2010
    • Baltimore, MD, October 2, 2009
    • Modesto Junior College, Modesto, CA, November 13, 2008
    • Turlock Tuesday Reading Club, January 9, 2007
    • University of Alabama, Birmingham, April 5, 2006
    • California State University, Stanislaus, December 5, 2005
    • Turlock Rotary Club, October 18, 2005
    • Denver, October 13, 2005
    • Costa Mesa, CA, May 7, 2005.
    • Seattle Pacific University, April 7, 2005.
    • Biola University, April 24, 2004.
    • Westmont College, April 14, 2004.
    • University of California, Santa Barbara, April 13, 2004. Available for viewing on-line at: webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/8987.rm
  • Lecture on “Darwinism and the Problem of Valuing Human Life,” Biola University, March 19, 2009.
  • Presentation at a panel on my book, From Darwin to Hitler, Darwinism after Darwin Conference, University of Leeds, UK, September 2007.
  • Lecture/Powerpoint Presentation, “Darwin’s Impact in Europe and America,” Humphreys College, Modesto, CA, August 19, 2004.
  • Lecture/Powerpoint Presentation, “Eugenics: Science or Ethics,” at CSU, Stanislaus, April 5, 2004.
  • Paper presentation, “The Impact of Social Darwinism on Antisemitic Ideology in Germany and Austria, 1860-1945,” Conference on Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Evolution, Arizona State University, February 29-March 1, 2004.
  • Paper presentation, “Evolutionäre Aufklärung? Zur Geschichte des Monistenbundes” (“Evolutionary Enlightenment? A History of the Monist League”), at Rudolf-Goldscheid Symposium: “Das grosse Misverständnis? Wissenschaft, Politik, und Öffentlichkeit von der ‘Wiener Moderne’ bis heute,” (“The Great Misunderstanding? Science, Politics, and the Public Sphere from ‘Modernist Vienna’ to Present”), University of Vienna, November 1999.
  • Participant in colloquium, “Freedom and Responsibility in the Writings of Charles Darwin,” Tuscon, AZ, January 1999.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND LECTURES

  • Paper presentation, “How Hitler’s Religion and Morality Spawned War and Genocide,” Conference on Religion and World War II, Florida State University, Nov. 2012.
  • Paper presentation, “Misreading Bonhoeffer: The Problem of Language in Bonhoeffer’s Texts,” West Coast Conference on Faith and History, Pepperdine University, October 2011.
  • Paper presentation, “”Undermining Objective Morality by Embracing the Evolutionary Origin of Morality,” Conference on “The Evolution of Morality and the Morality of Evolution,” Oxford University, July 2011.
  • Commentator on panel, “Nazi Eugenics: Conditions, Procedures, and Justifications,” German Studies Association Conference, Oakland, October 2010.
  • Paper presentation, “A History of the Impact of Darwinism on Bioethics,” Conference on “150 Years of Evolution: Darwin’s Impact on the Humanities and Social Sciences,” San Diego State University, November 2009.
  • Paper presentation, “Hitler’s Struggle for Existence against Slavs: Anthropology, Racial Theory, and Vacillations in Nazi Policy toward Czechs and Poles,” Conference on “Toward an Integrated Perspective on Nazi Policies of Mass Murder,” Oslo, Norway, June 2009.
  • Paper presentation, “Using Darwinism to Undermine Christian Ethics: Darwin, Haeckel and Friedrich Jodl,” Conference on “Evolution and Religion: Towards a History of an Evolving Relationship,” Clemson University, February 2009.
  • Paper presentation, “The Dehumanizing Impact of Modern Thought: Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, and Their Followers,” National Faculty Leadership Conference, Washington, DC, June 2008.
  • Paper presentation, “The Sources of Hitler’s Ethic,” German Studies Association, Washington, DC, October 2004 (forthcoming).
  • Paper presentation, “Darwinism and Devaluing Human Life: An Historical Perspective,” at Conference on Biology and Purpose: Altruism, Morality, and Human Nature in Evolutionary Theory, Calvin College, November 2002.
  • Paper presentation, “Darwinism, Monism, and the Search for a Scientific Ethics in Germany, 1890-1914,” at History of Science Society Conference, Denver, November 2001.
  • Paper presentation, “Darwinism, Monism, and the Secularization of Ethics in Wilhelmine Germany,” at German Studies Association Conference, Washington, DC, October 2001.
  • Participant, Templeton Foundation Faculty Seminar on “Biology and Purpose: Altruism, Morality, and Human Nature in Evolutionary Theory,” Calvin College, July 2-27, 2001.
  • Paper presentation, “Darwinism and Death: Devaluing Human Life in Germany, 1859-1918,” at West Coast History of Science Society Conference, University of California, Berkeley, May 2000.
  • Paper presentation, “German Darwinism and the Right to Life, 1860-1914,” at Conference on Faith and History Far West Conference, Trinity International University, October 1999.
  • Moderator of panel, “European Turbulence,” at Phi Alpha Theta Northern California Regional Conference, Turlock, March 1999.
  • Paper presentation, “Evolution, Ethics and Devaluing Human Life in Germany,” at Conference on Faith and History California Conference, April 1998.
  • Paper presentation, “The Peculiar Pacifism of Ernst Haeckel: Social Darwinist Militarism before and during World War I,” at German Studies Association Conference, Seattle, October 1996.
  • Moderator of panel, “Aggression and Appeasement in the 1930s,” at Phi Alpha Theta Northern California Regional Conference, Sacramento, April 1996.
  • Paper presentation, “Pietist Social Reform in Prussia, 1800-1848,” at Missouri Valley History Conference, Omaha, March 1990.