Louisa Shepard

Senior News Officer

Louisa Shepard covers English, history of art, music, theater, and classical studies, among other subject areas, in the School of Arts and Sciences. She also supports coverage for the Kelly Writers House, the Graduate School of Education, the Penn Libraries, the Penn Museum, the Arthur Ross Gallery, and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, as well as fine arts in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. 

Student looking closely at a rare document in a plastic sleeve he is holding, while seated in a library.

Walt Whitman up close

As part of the Penn Manuscript Collective, students transcribe rare documents and original works by Walt Whitman in the University’s collection. Their discoveries will be included in an international symposium at Penn this spring, Whitman at 200, led by the Penn Libraries marking the anniversary of the poet’s birth.

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Televion wall displaying many different channels simutaneously

TV marathon

With many taking time off over the holidays, Rahul Mukherjee of cinema studies shares his thoughts on binge-watching television.

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Wide view of art gallery showing many paintings on the walls and about ten people looking at them

Engaging citizen curators

An innovative exhibition at the Arthur Ross Gallery features 50 works from Penn’s art collection chosen by the public in a crowdsourced exhibition. More than 600 people voted for their favorite to be included in “Citizen Salon,” on display through March 24.

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closeup of student with paint brush painting red paint on small image on paper at a table

Pigment and parchment

Undergraduate and graduate students were paired with visiting scholars during a Penn Libraries workshop to paint illustrations like those in centuries-old illuminated manuscripts.

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Penn senior Andrew Ravaschiere seated in a laboratory doing a procedure with a syringe

Cells and cinema

As a biology major, senior Andrew Ravaschiere spends much of his time in a laboratory conducting cellular research. But as a cinema and media studies minor, he got out of the lab and into the world of filmmaking during the summer, working as an intern for a documentary filmmaker.

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