Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Behaviour

Course goals

After completion of the course, students should have a profound understanding of:
1. Obtaining insight in the function of sexual behavior in animals and humans from an evolutionary perspective
2. Comparing and integrating primary literature
3. Writing a scientific essay in English
4. Critically evaluate written text
5. Editing written text
6. Formulating questions and discussing subjects
7. Giving presentation in English
8. Contributing to scientific discussions

Content

In this course all aspects of sexual selection will pass by. We will discuss the popular scientific book Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal (2022) by Lucy Cooke. This book provides a fresh take on topic of sexual selection, and aims to disprove the (still commonly heard) misconception that females are “passive” and males are “active” in the realm of mating. In the book, different aspects of sexual selection are discussed, such as:

1. Mechanisms of sex determination
2. Bateman’s principle
3. Sexual cannibalism
4. Cryptic female choice
5. Maternal care
6. Female competition
7. Menopause

After the book discussion, we start with the essay assignment. Each student is assigned an essay topic related to sexual selection. The goal of this exercise is that you learn how to set up, write, and critically evaluate a scientific topic in English. We provide reference to two or three key paper for each essay subject, and we expect an additional in-depth literature review from you. First, you will submit an outline for the essay to your supervisor, which will be discussed in a meeting. Hereafter, you start working on the first version of the essay. After submitting this version, you will read the essays of two fellow students and submit critical questions about the essay. After receiving feedback on your first version, you will edit your own essay by incorporating the comments of your supervisor into your essay.
 
In the final exercise of this course, you will present your essay in English in a 10 minute powerpoint presentation. The goal of this exercise is that you will learn how to extract the essential elements from your written text and to effectively convey its message to a broad audience.

Apart from the assignments, there will be four lectures:

1. Introductory lecture about sexual selection
2. Introduction to essay writing
3. Sexual selection in humans
4. Guest lecture: research on sexual selection

In addition, there will be two on-site sessions for students to write or present their presentation on campus.

Generative AI guidelines
In line with the GSLS guidelines, we expect students to disclose their use of GenAI during the writing of their essay in a GenAI statement. In addition, students are expected to hand in a document containing all the prompts and outputs of GenAI that they used during the essay assignment (including the outline).

Registration: