Just Do It

Skin: A Natural History


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Published: Mar 26, 2008

Sat., March 29, 1 p.m., free, Wagner Free Institute of Science, 1700 W. Montgomery Ave., 215-763-6529, wagnerfreeinstitute.org

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As the Westbrook Lectures at the Wagner Free Institute of Science approach their 100th anniversary, they've got plenty to be proud of — including speakers like American philosopher John Dewey, and groundbreaking anthropologist Margaret Mead, who liked to hang out on Pacific islands and ask people really personal questions about premarital sex.

Penn State biological anthropologist Nina Jablonski will join their ranks on Saturday to promote her excellent book, Skin: A Natural History (University of California Press, $24.95), which is just what it sounds like — the story of how we, homo sapiens, lost the thick matting of hair that covered the bodies of our primate ancestors, and along the way developed such rich diversity in skin color.

With race and racism in the news now more than ever, this is an especially interesting thing to be talking about — racism may be about a million other things, after all, but it's articulated through skin color. If Jablonski's '07 appearance on The Colbert Report was anything to go by, she is one of those academics who prides herself in her ability to talk to regular, everyday folks like you and me, so expect a lively, accessible discussion.