Dr. Katie Hinde, associate professor in the Center for Evolution and Medicine at Arizona State University, will present an Endowed Lecture on Thursday, October 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Boitnott Room in Rebecca Hall at Bridgewater College. Her talk, entitled “The Milk of Humankindness,” will explore the historical context and contemporary conflicts around infant feeding, women’s health and social justice.
“Shaped by over 300 million years of natural selection, milk is older even than dinosaurs and reflects the unique evolutionary trajectory of each mammalian species,” Hinde says. “A mother’s milk is more unique than a fingerprint, as individual mothers synthesize milk specifically for each lactation for infants in that time and place. Perceived as both magical alchemy and bespoke tailoring, breastmilk and infant feeding has become an increasingly contested terrain of intersecting ethical conflicts, moral judgements and constrained ‘choices,’ impacting both individual well-being and collective public health.”
Hinde has a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA. At Arizona State University, Hinde investigates the food, medicine and signal of mother’s milk. In addition to dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, Hinde co-edited Building Babies: Primate Developmental Trajectories in Proximate and Ultimate Perspective (Springer, 2013). Also in 2013, Hinde created March Mammal Madness, a science outreach project modeled on the basketball tournament of a similar name and that has participants predict which mammals will win in a simulated combat.
The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the event starting at 7:30 p.m.
The endowed lecture is sponsored by the Anna B. Mow Symposium on Comparative Religious Ethics.
Media Contact:
Heather Cole
Editor & Media Relations Director
hcole@bridgewater.edu
10/8/25
