Rachel S. A. Pear

Rachel wrote her dissertation on the changes in responses to evolution by American Jews in the 20th century and into the 21st ("And It Was Good? American Modern Orthodox Engagement with Darwinism 1925-2012"). One of the project’s main aims was to contextualize the views and trends that it documented, as the premise of the work was that a religious group’s encounter with Darwinism is shaped by historical, sociological, and anthropological factors in addition to theological ones. A central question the dissertation sought to answer was: why were predominately positive responses to evolution in the early 20th century over shadowed by more negative perspectives later in the century?

Since graduating from the STS@BIU program, Rachel has worked to advance evolution education in Israel through co-teaching seminars and courses with fellow STS graduates Dov Berger and Meir Klein. Rachel is currently a research fellow at the University of Haifa and can be reached at RachelSAPear@gmail.com.