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Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Wrestling with academics
As a student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, second-year wrestler Adam Thomson, an international champion, balances athletics with his research on hyperinflation in Brazil.
Archiving materials that reflect a ‘shared history’
How 50 years of material from the Program in Gender Studies and Women’s Studies and the Penn Women’s Center becomes more accessible for students, faculty, and researchers.
The power of chick lit
Meghan Hall, lecturer and associate director for graduate studies in the Department of English, talks about what gives the popular literary genre its staying power.
Oscars predictions 2024
Ahead of the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, Kathy DeMarco Van Cleve of Cinema & Media Studies offers predictions for the screenplay categories.
Marking 60 years of New York Times v. Sullivan
The Annenberg Public Policy Center commemorates the landmark Supreme Court case ahead of the ruling’s 60th anniversary.
Kathleen Morrison on biodiversity and climate change
The faculty director of the Environmental Innovations Initiative, her research spans anthropology, archaeology, and paleoecology, involving the study of historic climates and environments, with a focus on South Asia.
Reading James Baldwin for a 21st century world
To commemorate Baldwin’s approaching centennial, the Lotus Collective is hosting weekly readings and discussions of his work at Kelly Writers House.
Centuries of ‘TikTalk’
The media popularity of the vocal trend called “TikTalk,” or a combination of uptalkand vocal fry, is actually nothing new, says linguist Mark Liberman.
In Japan, teaching a multitude of creative anthropology practices
Penn anthropologists in the Center for Experimental Ethnography led workshops at Ritsumeikan University on performance, film, mapping, sound, and collaging.
‘Ladysitting’ on stage
The new play “Ladysitting” at the Arden Theatre Co. is by Penn English faculty and alumna Lorene Cary, based on her memoir about caring for her grandmother in the last of her 101 years.
In the News
Comcast’s Sports Complex plan for South Philly would make our city less livable
In an Op-Ed, Vukan R. Vuchic of the School of Engineering and Applied Science says that Philadelphia should make transit more accessible rather than striving to accommodate more cars.
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We don’t see what climate change is doing to us
In an Op-Ed, R. Jisung Park of the School of Social Policy & Practice says that public discourse around climate change overlooks the buildup of slow, subtle costs and their impact on human systems.
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Far fewer young Americans now want to study in China. Both countries are trying to fix that
Amy Gadsden of Penn Global says that American interest in studying in China is declining due to foreign businesses closing their offices there and Beijing’s draconian governing style.
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In death, three decades after his trial verdict, O.J. Simpson still reflects America’s racial divides
Camille Charles of the School of Arts & Sciences says that Black Americans have grown less likely to believe in a famous defendant’s innocence as a show of race solidarity.
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‘Slouch’ review: The panic over posture
In her new book, “Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America,” Beth Linker of the School of Arts & Sciences traces society’s posture obsession to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
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