10.20

Decolonizing Museums

Penn Museum exterior and courtyard with seating

Penn Museum and the Center for Experimental Ethnography at Penn present an international conference that examines current issues of the relationship between collections and colonialism, accountability, and what repair might look like. The conference is mostly virtual but has live events each evening related to Penn and the Philadelphia museum community.

All Day

Virtual

10.21

Cactus Flower

People standing in water

Penn Live Arts presents a virtual screening of “Cactus Flower,” a story of friendship and self-discovery amid disaster. The film is viewable through Oct. 27.

7:00p.m.

Virtual

9.18

Ulysses Jenkins Exhibit

The ICA presents the first major retrospective of the work of Ulysses Jenkins, a video artist from Los Angeles whose work rose to prominence in the 1970s and has been an influence on contemporary art since. The exhibition is co-curated by Meg Onli and Erin Christovale.

10:00a.m. - 5:00p.m.

Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 S. 36th St.

9.25

The Stories We Wear

Penn Museum Mongolian outfit in case

Penn Museum presents a special celebration of the new exhibition, "The Stories We Wear." The exhibition showcases clothing, accessories, and jewelry spanning 2,500 years, revealing how items we wear are an expression of identity. A series of pop-up talks, art activities, and performances throughout the day will mark the opening.

10:00a.m. - 5:00p.m.

Penn Museum, 3260 South St.

Penn COVID-19 Response

A mural on a brick wall. On the left-hand side, on a red background, are the word "Decolonize and Chill" in white. Beneath that are the silhouette of two men riding horses. On the right-hand side is a person with a horse, beneath the words "We are still here."

Tackling the topic of decolonization

Deborah Thomas, who runs Penn’s Center for Experimental Ethnography, and Christopher Woods, director of the Penn Museum, discuss a conference on decolonization that starts today, why now is the time for such a conversation, and where they hope it leads.

diagram of gene therapy for the eye showing injection into vitreous

Novel gene therapy platform speeds search for ways to cure blindness

Top, Janae Stewart prepares to kick a ball; bottom, Jake Inserra prepares to make a tackle.

Freshmen fly high, land weekly awards

Penn COVID-19 Response

Penn’s Weingarten Center receives visionary gift

Darin Johnson breaks down what code switching is

A pandemic year, in photos

Steiner’s term as dean of Penn’s Weitzman School of Design is extended

National Academy of Medicine welcomes two new members from Penn

Penn baffles Brown, moves to .500 in league play

Understanding civic engagement

EVENTS → NEWS ARCHIVES →

PENN ATHLETICS CALENDAR →

PENN ATHLETICS CALENDAR →

Tennis player preparing to serve on a clay court with Rolex signs on wall of court in background.

The business of sports reckons with domestic violence off the field

Wharton’s Americus Reed and Abraham J. Wyner explain how athletes’ endorsement contracts might be more relevant than their sports performance, and how all are at stake when allegations of misconduct arise.

Tina Rodia ・ October 14, 2021

penn pavilion construction

Penn’s Way kicks off workplace giving campaign, with $1.6M goal

The charitable giving campaign runs through Nov. 19. The campaign is built on three pillars: health care disparity, food insecurity, and social justice.

Dee Patel ・ October 15, 2021

college hall steps during hey day

Hey Day 2021: ‘Senior year is ours to seize’

An in-person celebration well worth the wait, students wore their custom red T-shirts and plastic foam skimmer hats while waving their canes, as Penn President Amy Gutmann declared them officially seniors on College Green.

Lauren Hertzler ・ October 13, 2021

notecards from generation pandemic

A generation shaped by a pandemic

Two Penn seniors travel the country to interview young adults about their experiences during the past year to create an oral history archive with stories, images, and video.

Louisa Shepard ・ October 11, 2021

health care worker injects vaccine into patient's arm

Five things to know about the upcoming flu season

Thanks to COVID prevention measures, last year’s flu season was among the mildest in years. Penn experts explain why this year may be different and how to prepare.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・ October 11, 2021

More From Inside Penn →

10.20

Decolonizing Museums

Penn Museum exterior and courtyard with seating

Penn Museum and the Center for Experimental Ethnography at Penn present an international conference that examines current issues of the relationship between collections and colonialism, accountability, and what repair might look like. The conference is mostly virtual but has live events each evening related to Penn and the Philadelphia museum community.

All Day

Virtual

10.21

Cactus Flower

People standing in water

Penn Live Arts presents a virtual screening of “Cactus Flower,” a story of friendship and self-discovery amid disaster. The film is viewable through Oct. 27.

7:00p.m.

Virtual

convocation at college hall — Gallery
Feeling ‘rejuvenated’ on campus, students celebrate Convocation

Penn’s newest students gathered on College Green to kick off the University’s 282nd year.

SEE MORE →

convocation procession — Gallery
Feeling ‘rejuvenated’ on campus, students celebrate Convocation

Penn’s newest students gathered on College Green to kick off the University’s 282nd year.

SEE MORE →

grand opening of perry world house

Campus & Community

Perry World House turns 5

Portrait of William Still.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Honoring William Still on his 200th birthday

close up of med dissertations

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Two centuries old, a handwritten record of medical education

armstrong house

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Protecting and celebrating civil rights heritage and Black histories

Launched last fall, Penn’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights sites is fostering new and ongoing partnerships while preserving the legacy of civil rights in the U.S.

Big Ideas

Political Science
Racial Justice
Coronavirus Research
Climate Change

Meg Guliford, John Gans, Wazhmah Osman and Trudy Rubin sit in chairs on a stage with the words Perry World House on the wall behind them

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Afghanistan’s future after the U.S. withdrawal

Perry World House held a hybrid panel this week to look at what the future holds for Afghanistan, featuring in-person speakers and audience members, as well as virtual attendees watching online.

A zoom meeting screen shows Elizabeth Vale on the left screen and former Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron on the right screen.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Martin Baron on the future of news and importance of investigative journalism

The former executive editor of The Washington Post spoke with Fels Distinguished Fellow Elizabeth Vale as part of the Fels Public Policy in Practice series.

Joseph Westphal with American soldiers in Afghanistan

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Two decades after 9/11, a conversation with a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia

In a Q&A, Joseph Westphal, a senior global fellow at the Lauder Institute and former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, talks about post-9/11 Saudi Arabia.

People standing on the streets of Havana in protest of the Cuban government.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

‘A unified feeling’

In a Q&A, Romance languages professor Odette Casamayor-Cisneros discusses the Cuban protests, government response, and the “sense of unity” among the Cuban people

armstrong house

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Protecting and celebrating civil rights heritage and Black histories

Launched last fall, Penn’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights sites is fostering new and ongoing partnerships while preserving the legacy of civil rights in the U.S.

ground zero from liberty state park

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

9/11, 20 years later

Experts across the University share their thoughts on how 9/11 transformed their field, their research, and the world.

penn museum with patient pavilion in background

Campus & Community

Report on the handling of human remains from the 1985 MOVE tragedy

The findings from an independent investigation into the handling of human remains following the 1985 MOVE tragedy were released after the report was shared directly with members of the Africa Family.

A transgender person wearing a medical gown sits on an exam table speaking to a doctor.

Health Sciences

Reproductive justice in nursing

The Penn chapter of Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health works to expand students’ engagement in Reproductive justice.

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman look at a computer monitor wearing face masks.

Health Sciences

COVID-19 mRNA vaccine that uses fundamental Penn technology receives FDA approval

Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine to prevent COVID-19 uses fundamental modified mRNA technology created by Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó at the Perelman School of Medicine.

masked health care worker holding bottle of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

Health Sciences

Penn study details robust T-cell response to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines

The results underline the importance of a second dose and include implications for booster shots.

person with arms crossed in front of pond

Health Sciences

Engineers create faster and cheaper COVID-19 testing with pencil lead

A new electrochemical COVID-19 test addresses the challenges of cost, time, and accuracy and uses electrodes made from graphite.

Adult wearing mask adjusts the mask of a young child

Health Sciences

A COVID vaccine for kids

Jeff Gerber, who is heading the clinical trial of the Moderna vaccine in kids under 12 at CHOP, speaks with Penn Today about the trial and why getting children vaccinated is so essential.

A college-age person standing outside, with greenery blurred in the front of the image. She is wearing a jean jacket with the words "Re-earth IN," a globe in the shape of a heart, and other earth-related designs.

Campus & Community

‘The climate girl’ at Penn

In a Q&A with Xiye Bastida, the second year describes how she’s bringing climate activism to her college experience, how her Indigenous background influences her path, and why storytelling and protecting Earth go hand in hand.

Three people speak at a lecturn outside

Campus & Community

Learn, reflect, and act during Climate Week

Climate Week at Penn, sponsored by the Provost’s Office, offers a variety of events—both in-person and online—that invite the whole University community to learn about, reflect on, and address the climate crisis.

A dried up desert with a small amount of water on the right-hand side. The sun is blazing in the background, in front of mountains.

Science & Technology

Four things to know about the latest IPCC climate report

The assessment describes ‘unequivocal’ human influence that no doubt caused ‘widespread and rapid changes’ to the atmosphere, oceans, and more. Professors Mark Alan Hughes and Michael Weisberg discuss the findings, plus how we can avoid passing the point of no return.

a close-up of a blue flame of methane on a natural gas burner

Science & Technology

Identifying an elusive molecule key to combustion chemistry

Researchers made the most direct observation of a key intermediate formed during the breakdown of hydrocarbons during combustion and in the atmosphere, results that could help in the future design of fuels that burn more efficiently.

Scientific American

Four success stories in gene therapy

Jean Bennett and Albert Maguire of the Perelman School of Medicine developed a gene therapy to treat blindness in patients with retinal dystrophy caused by mutations in the RPE65 gene. “These people can now do things they never could have dreamed of doing, and they’re more independent and enjoying life,” said Bennett.

FULL STORY →

The Supreme Court’s ‘shadow docket’: What you need to know

Kermit Roosevelt of the Law School is quoted on the difference in timing when the Supreme Court expedites decisions on emergency actions.

FULL STORY →

How 1.3 million Americans became controlled by conservatorships

Jasmine Harris of the Law School spoke about the U.S. conservatorship system. "The best type of guardianship is the one that never happens," she said. "We have to reimagine the types of community supports that we have in place to provide the scaffolding that I was talking about, that makes guardianship unnecessary."

FULL STORY →

Why COVID boosters weren't tweaked to better match variants

John Wherry of the Perelman School of Medicine said there’s no guarantee that a booster shot retooled to target the delta variant would work better than a general COVID-19 vaccine booster.

FULL STORY →

Neglect of Palestinians in Israel fuels killing spree

Ian Lustick of the School of Arts & Sciences comments on how illegal weapons, gangs and an extremely high crime rate are the result of the Israeli government neglecting the Palestinian sector.

FULL STORY →

Philadelphia Inquirer

Guided mastery: The scaffolding you need to grow stronger

Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences wrote about the importance of imbuing young people with a sense of personal agency. “Don’t tell anyone they have complete control of their destiny. That’s not true,” she said. “And yet each of us, no matter our circumstances, has some control, particularly over our own thoughts and actions.”

FULL STORY →

MarketWatch

Companies have a new weapon in the hunt for talent: free college degrees. Why it’s important to read the fine print.

Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School is quoted on the strategic reasons why employers might want to offer debt-free degree programs.

FULL STORY →

The New York Times

Booster Confusion

Scott Hensley of the Perelman School of Medicine commented on the recommendation to get an mRNA booster.

FULL STORY →

WHYY-Radio (Philadelphia)

How HUP plans the big move — including patients — to its new Pavilion building

Monisha Kumar of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on moving her hospital unit to the new Penn Pavilion.

FULL STORY →

Elle Magazine

Genetic testing saves lives. So why aren’t more women of color doing it?

Susan Domchek and Carmen Guerra of the Perelman School of Medicine are interviewed on why understanding heritage can transform outcomes for Black and Latinx women at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer.

FULL STORY →