Melissa Hines
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUCLA, Princeton University
Known forNeuroscientist, Gender studies
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge

Melissa Hines is a neuroscientist and Professor at the University of Cambridge. She studies the development of gender, with particular focus on how the interaction of prenatal and postnatal experience shape brain development and behavior.

Education

Hines received a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Princeton University.[1] She was in the first group of women enrolled as undergraduates, which could have inspired an interest in gender.[2][3] She received a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. The focus of her thesis was the gender-related behaviour of women whose mothers had taken the synthetic oestrogen diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy.[4]

Research

Hines completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Neuroendocrinology and Neuroscience at the UCLA Brain Research Institute.[3] She investigated hormonal influences on brain development in rodents there and at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she was a visiting scientist.[5] She received the Shephard Ivory Franz Award for Distinguished Teaching at UCLA.[6] After her postdoctoral fellowship, she was appointed as an Assistant and then Associate Professor at UCLA. During her time at UCLA she trained and was licensed as a clinical psychologist.[5]

Hines moved to the UK and joined City University as a Professor of Psychology in 1996.[7] She is a Chartered Counseling Psychologist in the UK (British Psychological Society).[8] In 2006 she joined the University of Cambridge and Churchill College, Cambridge.[4] She is Director of the University of Cambridges's Gender Development Research Centre.[3]

Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of sex/gender differences in human brain and behaviour.[9][10] Based on findings that male and female vervet monkeys show toy preferences that resemble those seen in children, Hines and Alexander suggested that "sex differences in toy preferences can arise independent of the social and cognitive mechanisms thought by many to be the primary influences on toy preferences".[11] Other research indicates that girls with high levels of testosterone are less interested in dolls, and more interested in toy vehicles, than are other girls.[11][12] She has appeared on a discussion panel with autism researcher Simon Baron Cohen, who also is interested in hormonal influences on human gender development.[13][14] Their results have, however, sometimes differed from one another's, with Hines' results showing an influence just for girls but Baron Cohen's showing an influence just for boys or for boys and girls taken together, and for some measures no difference for either sex.[15]

Public engagement

Hines was the President of the International Academy of Sex Research.[6] She is the author of Brain Gender, published in 2004 by Oxford University Press.

She spoke at the Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge "Women's Word" festival in 2011.[16] In 2013 she appeared on BBC Radio 4 discussing the spat between Suzanne Moore and transgender rights activists.[17] In 2014 she was an invited speaker at the Cambridge Science Festival. She is a writer for The Conversation.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Professor of Psychology, Melissa Hines — Department of Psychology". www.psychol.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  2. ↑ "When Women Came to Princeton". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 2016-10-18. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  3. 1 2 3 "People — Gender Development Research Centre". www.gdrc.psychol.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  4. 1 2 "People – Churchill College". www.chu.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  5. 1 2 Melissa., Hines (2004). Brain gender. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195188363. OCLC 51804960.
  6. 1 2 Hormones, brain, and behavior. Pfaff, Donald W., 1939-, Elsevier Science (Firm) (2nd electronic ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier/Academic Press. 2009. ISBN 978-0080887838. OCLC 449286151.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ↑ "Home Page". www.staff.city.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  8. ↑ "Good practice guidelines for the assessment and treatment of adults with gender dysphoria" (PDF). Gender Identity Research & Education Society. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  9. ↑ Cahill, Larry (2012). "His Brain, Her Brain". Scientific American. 21 (2s): 4–11. doi:10.1038/scientificamericanbrain0512-4.
  10. ↑ poppy sebag-montefiore (2013-08-09), The Brain and the Mind - Discussion 5 of 6: The Gendered Brain, retrieved 2018-02-03
  11. 1 2 Hines, Melissa; Alexander, Gerianne M. (2008). "Monkeys, girls, boys and toys: A confirmation". Hormones and Behavior. 54 (3): 478–479. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2008.05.012. PMC 2643016. PMID 18599056.
  12. ↑ Clare Bailey (2011-05-09), Clare Rayner BBC Breakfast: Why is pink the colour of choice for girls?, retrieved 2018-02-03
  13. ↑ Ltd., Thomas Dale of D Taled Designs. "The Brain and the Mind". www.thebrainandthemind.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  14. ↑ "Have you a male or a female brain?". 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  15. ↑ Schaffer, Amanda (2010-10-21). "The Last Word on Fetal T". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  16. ↑ "Is there any such thing as the female brain?". University of Cambridge. 2011-06-22. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  17. ↑ "Who Decides if I'm a Woman?, Analysis - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  18. ↑ Hines, Melissa. "There's no good reason to push pink toys on girls". The Conversation. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
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