Anthropology faculty member Nina Jablonski named Atherton Professor

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Following a highly distinguished 17 years in Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts, Evan Pugh University Professor of Anthropology Nina G. Jablonski has been named an Atherton Professor.

The newly created professorship is reserved exclusively for retiring Evan Pugh professors in recognition of their exemplary research and creative accomplishments, teaching and learning, and service over the course of their careers, and allows for the continuation of these activities to the benefit of the University community.

Jablonski will additionally carry the title of Evan Pugh University Professor, Emerita. The Evan Pugh University Professorship is the highest distinction bestowed upon faculty by the University. Since its establishment in 1960, only 79 faculty members have received the designation.

"Given her distinguished career as a Penn Stater, her extensive contributions to her discipline as a foremost expert in her field, and the broad impact her scholarship has had beyond academia, Nina was an exemplary candidate for this honor," said Clarence Lang, Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts. "I am proud that she will continue to represent the college, and the University, in both the profession and the public."

Being named an Atherton professor is welcome recognition for a scholar who wants to continue “doing interesting work and having an interesting intellectual life,” said Jablonski, who formerly served as head of the Department of Anthropology and associate director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.

“These Atherton professorships are really wonderful because all of the Evan Pugh professors I’ve known have had brains on fire even after retirement,” Jablonski said. “This professorship really is the best of both worlds for those of us who want to remain intellectually active and still connected to the University but not beholden to it. And it behooves the University to give these people a title and some logistical support so that they can continue to make contributions that will ultimately reflect on the University. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

A biological anthropologist and paleobiologist, Jablonski studies primate and human evolution, particularly adaptations to the environment. Her research has focused on four major areas: the evolution of Old World monkeys; human adaptations to the environment, including the evolution of human skin and skin pigmentation; the history and social consequences of skin color-based race concepts; and youth science education, especially human evolution and human physical diversity.

For more than two decades, Jablonski has been a world-renowned expert and public speaker on the topic of human skin and skin color. In 2000, she and her husband and frequent collaborator George Chaplin, a former faculty member in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, put forward the dual cline theory (vitamin D-folate theory) for the evolution of human skin pigmentation, which explains why dark skin evolved under conditions of high ultraviolet radiation (UVR) in the tropics, while lighter skin developed under conditions of lower UVR nearer the poles.

While at first her research focused more on the science and health implications of skin color, Jablonski eventually ventured into examining its history as a source of global racism and oppression.

“About 15 years ago, I had a few colleagues say to me, ‘When are you going to start talking about the social context of skin color?’” she said. “I realized at that point that my comfort zone was immaterial, and by virtue of the fact that I had done this work, I was comfortable understanding and explaining how skin color had come to be taken as a mark of social value and identified with race. When I began to put the pre-history together with the history, I realized those histories could be told together, and that you could describe how skin color had evolved over thousands of years, as well as the recent history of how physical attributes had been labeled, regarded, and valued over time.

“We have to realize humans share basically everything with one another – the fact that we’ve made small differences so socially significant does us a great injustice,” she continued. “The way races have been socially constructed continues to be a powerful force in society. You can’t just say race is a social construct and ignore it, because it conditions people’s realities. Now more than ever, people are thinking about how race works and how it applies to their everyday lives. I want to continue to do this work, because these conversations are really important.”

In addition to more than 200 peer-reviewed scholarly papers and book chapters, Jablonski has written the well-received books “Skin:  A Natural History” (2006, Berkeley, University of California Press) and “Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color” (2012, Berkeley, University of California Press). She also co-created the children’s books “Skin We Are In” (2018, New Africa Books), which was adapted into a theatrical production by the Windybrow Arts Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, and “It’s Just Skin, Silly!”, which will be published at the end of this year.  

From 2013 to 2018, Jablonski collaborated with renowned Harvard University faculty member Henry Louis Gates Jr. and other scholars and educators on the Finding Your Roots Curriculum Project, which aimed to get students excited about science and careers in STEM through the study of genetics and genealogy. The project was spotlighted in the PBS program, “Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings,” which received two Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.

“I was particularly proud that the ‘Seedlings’ project was mostly ‘homegrown,’ having been funded in part by the Benkovic Family Foundation of State College and produced by WPSU,” she said.

In 2010, Jablonski was awarded an honorary doctorate by South Africa’s Stellenbosch University for her contributions to the worldwide fight against racism. And she led the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study’s “Effects of Race” (EOR) program, which brought together scholars from South Africa, the United States and Europe to look at new ways to approach the study of race and the mitigation of racism.

Jablonski has received numerous grants and fellowships through the years, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and serves as an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Arriving at Penn State in 2006 from the California Academy of Sciences, Jablonski said she was attracted by the chance to do interdisciplinary work at a major research institution. The move paid off, as the University’s many centers and institutes provided her with countless opportunities for collaborative research projects.

“People really do work well together here, whether collaborating on research or supporting graduate students in their research. That collegiality is what really has made our department so strong over the years,” said Jablonski, who received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Bryn Mawr College and her doctorate in anthropology from the University of Washington.

As she enters this next phase of her life, Jablonski said, she looks forward to spending more free time with her husband. Meanwhile, her scholarly pursuits and public outreach continue unabated. Among other things, she’s working on a book about the biological and social history of hair — “Because humans are obsessed with hair, whether you have it or don’t,” she said.

“I want to be more deliberate about my time choices and do more things that I think will bring more personal reward and be broadly beneficial to individuals,” Jablonski said. “When you retire from one role in life, you can reflect on the stuff that makes you happy, as well as continue to do that and cultivate it and make it easier for you to pursue those paths to happiness. I feel extremely fortunate to have had a home at Penn State the past 17 years, because I’ve been able to flourish as a scholar here, thanks to the University and the College of the Liberal Arts. It opened up incredible vistas to me.”