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Sociology
The ‘true value of women’s work’
The Wages for Housework movement is a precursor to the Child Tax Credit and guaranteed income, says sociologist Pilar Gonalons-Pons. A community center in Germantown houses their 50-year archive and carries on the work.
Seeing disability differently
Scholars are trying to understand—and change—how the world works for people with disabilities.
Comparing urban and rural excess mortality during COVID-19
The first-ever county-level study of excess mortality in the United States shows monthly excess deaths spread from large cities to rural counties in the second year of the pandemic.
Ancient medicine in today’s world
Taylor Dysart, a doctoral candidate in the School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of History and Sociology of Science, probes modern science’s enthrallment with the powerful Amazonian intoxicant ayahuasca.
Reconsidering world heritage for the modern era
Through recent research, archaeologist and Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Lynn Meskell has continued to highlight how World Heritage Sites have become flashpoints for conflict and out of touch with local communities.
Understanding the decline in racial disparities in COVID
The School of Arts & Sciences’ Irma Elo and Samuel Preston, with a collaborative team of researchers, assessed racial disparities in U.S. COVID-19 deaths, calling for continued efforts to better understand and implement targeted strategies for addressing health inequalities.
Remembering Harry Belafonte
Tukufu Zuberi describes meeting the musician-turned-activist, plus how Belafonte used his talents for good and what legacy he leaves behind.
How have women in the workforce fared, three years into the pandemic?
Despite hopeful signs that this demographic is returning to work, certain female-dominated sectors, like the care economy, still haven’t recovered, signaling there’s more to learn about COVID-19’s full effect.
Who, What, Why: Zoe Zhao on emerging digital labor
Zoe Zhao, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology, studies digital labor related to video games and livestreaming.
States with high COVID-19 death rates also saw high mortality from other causes
Research from Penn, Boston University, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that between March 2020 and February 2021 non-COVID deaths accounted for some 20% of excess mortality.
In the News
Teacher shortages in America are holding Gen Z students like me back
Richard Ingersoll of the Graduate School of Education says that qualified teachers make a difference for students by both knowing the subject and knowing how to teach the subject.
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Sociology: Practically constitutional!
In an Op-Ed, Jerry A. Jacobs of the School of Arts & Sciences says that Florida’s recent effort to marginalize sociology is a shortsighted move to score political points while jeopardizing an important component of the nation’s world-leading system of higher education.
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Life is not a series of linear stages defined by age: Mauro F Guillen
In a Q&A, Mauro F. Guillén of the Wharton School discusses his latest book, “The Perennials,” which outlines the shaping of a post-generational society and its implications for businesses, governments, and society at large.
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Warped front pages
In a co-written Op-Ed, PIK Professor Duncan Watts argues that journalistic claims to objectivity in political news are a convenient and self-serving fiction.
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Torn Apart: Terror
PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts describes the horrors that the child welfare system inflicts by invading homes, targeting low-income families, and threatening to separate parents and children.
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Raquel Saraswati denies allegations that she lied about her race
Wendy Roth of the School of Arts & Sciences says that there’s tremendous variation of skin tone and overlap within most racial groups.
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