David Depew studies the history and philosophy of biology, and he is especially interested in clarifying controversies in the debate surrounding Darwinism.

Depew holds appointments in communication studies and the Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) as professor emeritus.

“Where I came here, I had no idea what a rich medium for learning and working with other people on their scholarly projects this place would be,” said Depew, who joined the UI faculty in 1996. “POROI crosses disciplinary lines as well as the line that all too frequently divides academic from popular audiences.”

Depew’s scholarship on Darwinism is driven by the fact that it has become such a heavily contested issue in America.  To cool the temperature of the debate, he tried to bring historical perspective, along with terms and concepts he learned from analytic philosophy.

Recently, Depew spoke at an international conference convened by the Gregorian University in Rome to advise the Roman Catholic Church on issues about evolution. In fall 2008, he organized a UI colloquium on Writing Science in a Writing University. Last spring, Depew received the prestigious Hancher-Finkbine Medallion for his leadership at the UI.

“My work at Iowa was largely devoted to helping students and fellow faculty improve their scholarly writings by considering how audiences will react to them,” Depew said.