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2025 Darwin Day Lecture: Nina Jablonski
February 142025 @ 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
FreeThe Skin in the Game of Evolution: How human skin illustrates Darwinian evolution and much more
Featuring Nina JablonskiPh.D.Atherton and Evan Pugh Professor Emerita of AnthropologyPenn State
National Academy of Sciences Member
FridayFebruary 142025 3:00-4:30 p.m. with a light reception following in the Chaiken Family Atrium114 Welch Building
Everything about human skinfrom its apparent nakedness and potential sweatiness to its many inherent colors and exquisite sensitivityis the product of evolution. This lecture will draw upon the rich and diverse evidence from paleontologyphysiologyclimatologygeneticsmicrobiologyand other fields that has led to our current understanding of the evolution of human skin. It will also explore how the preeminence of vision and language in humans paved the way for our ability to rapidly assess skin traits and then transmit impressions and value judgements of skin color and other traits to othersoften with disastrous results. Learning the basics of skin evolution instills valuable information about Darwinian evolution and a deep appreciation of the beauty of human diversity. It also provides the foundation of an educational curriculum for an anti-racist world.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Human Evolution and Diversity in the College of the Liberal Arts and Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences