Liz Barnes

Former postdoctoral scholar

Research Interests: I am broadly interested in evolution education. My work primarily focuses on how biology instructors can improve evolution education using religious cultural competence. This work has three main goals: decrease students' perceived conflict between religion and evolution, create more inclusive evolution education environments, and increase students' acceptance of evolution.

About me: A native Phoenician, I completed my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Arizona State University in the Center for Biology and Society studying the history and philosophy of science and biology education. I completed my Ph.D. in Biology and Society at Arizona State University in the BER lab and I continued as a postdoc to study the impact of culturally competent evolution education practices in undergraduate biology courses nationwide.  Currently, I am an Assistant Professor at Middle Tennessee State University.

Publications: 

Barnes ME, Brownell SE.  Practices and Perspectives of College Instructors on Addressing Religious Beliefs When Teaching Evolution.  CBE Life Sciences Education.  June 2016. 

Barnes ME, Elser J, Brownell SE.  The impact of a short evolution module on students' perceived conflict between religion and evolution.  American Biology Teacher.  February 2017.

Barnes ME, Truong J, Brownell SE.  Experiences of Judeo-Christian Students in Biology.  CBE Life Sciences Education. March 2017. 

Barnes ME, Evans M, Hazel A, Brownell SE, Nesse R.  Teleological reasoning, not acceptance of evolution, impacts students' ability to learn natural selection.  Evolution: Education and Outreach.  October 2017.

Barnes ME and Brownell SE. Experiences and practices of evolution instructors at Christian universities that can inform culturally competent evolution education. Science Education. November 2017.

Barnes ME and Brownell SE.  A call to use cultural competence when teaching evolution to religious college students: Introducing Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education (ReCCEE).  CBE Life Sciences Education.  December 2017.

Truong J*, Barnes ME*, Brownell SE. Can six minutes of culturally competent evolution education reduce students' level of perceived conflict between evolution and religion?  American Biology Teacher.  February 2018. (*these authors contributed equally)

Grunspan D, Nesse R, Barnes ME, Brownell SE.  A consensus set of core principles for evolutionary medicine.  Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health.  February 2018. 

Barnes ME, Dunlop H, Holt E, Zheng Y, Brownell SE. The Tool Matters: Different Surveys that Measure Acceptance of Evolution Lead to Different Research Findings.  Evolution Education and Outreach.  January 2019.    

Dunk R, Barnes ME, Reiss M, Alters B, Asghar A, Carter C, Cotner S, Glaze A, Hawley P, Jensen J, Mead L, Nadelson L, Nelson C, Pobiner B, Scott E, Shtulman A, Sinatra G, Southerland S, Walter E, Brownell S, and Wiles J.  Evolution education involves a complex landscape of interrelated factors.  Nature Ecology and Evolution.  February 2019. 

Barnes ME, Werner R, Brownell SE.  Differential impacts of a culturally competent genetics curriculum on student perceptions of conflict between religion and evolution at an evangelical university. American Biology Teacher.  In press.

liz.barnes [at] asu.edu