Reflecting on Jane Austen, 250 years after her birth
English professors Michael Gamer and Barri Joyce Gold have been teaching courses specifically dedicated to Jane Austen for years. They spoke with Penn Today about their approach to teaching her novels, how they challenge common readings and myths, and what makes Austen’s work so enduring—and adaptable to the screen—more than two centuries later.
Virtual nursing programs in hospitals fall short of expectations
Hospitals struggling to attract and retain enough registered nurses at the bedside are implementing alternative strategies to ensure patients get needed nursing care.
Penn historian Jared Farmer recently launched a website about Philadelphia’s fossil fuel economy to help students and residents learn about the local past in larger context.
Students in the Performance, Analysis, History class explore and perform on piano the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, regarded among history’s greatest composers. Taught by Jamuna Samuel and Yu Xi Wang, the class contextualizes and demystifies Bach through a historical and geographical lens.
Two Penn students chosen as 2026 Marshall Scholars
Adelaide Lyall, a graduate student in the School of Social Policy & Practice, and Norah Rami, a fourth-year in the College of Arts & Sciences, will receive funding for as much as three years of graduate study in the United Kingdom.
Two 2025 project grants and a fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
WXPN and the Institute for Contemporary Art each received creative project grants and filmmaker Sosena Solomon, who teaches in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies, was named a 2025 Pew Fellow.
This Perry World House panel will seek to explain the background of the conflict in Sudan, who the key players are and their motivations in Sudan, and what experts anticipate seeing in the short- and long-term. Speakers include Ali B. Ali-Dinar, senior lecturer at the Department of Africana Studies, and Mark Malloch-Brown, former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. Free and open to the public. Register to attend.
Smoke rises from a building in Khartoum, Sudan, on April 19, 2023. The U.S. conducted its first organized evacuation of citizens and permanent residents from Sudan on April 29, two weeks into the conflict.
Penn students, faculty, and staff can celebrate the end of finals with free coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and snacks at Holman Biotech Commons. The table will be stationed by the bay window.
Penn’s guiding principles are the University’s enduring values and distinctive strengths: anchored, inventive, interwoven, and engaged. The practices support and strengthen Penn’s core educational mission.
At Penn Today, we focus on some of the ways the University is putting this framework into action. From student, faculty, and staff profiles to research updates and event coverage, Penn Today highlights the latest examples of the University’s principled approach to excellence.
Penn Forward’s Access, Affordability, and Value co-chairs on creating opportunity
As co-chairs of Penn Forward’s Access, Affordability, and Value working group, Sara Bachman, dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice, and Patrick Harker, a professor and dean emeritus of the Wharton School, discuss breaking down barriers and opening pathways.
A conversation with Penn Forward’s Global Opportunity and New Markets co-chairs
In a Q&A with Ezekiel Emanuel and Megan Ryerson, co-chairs of the Global Opportunity and New Markets working group for Penn Forward, the duo discuss the charge of their group, where they are in the process, and leaning into global engagement.
Through Penn First Plus, students unlock potential and purpose
Providing first-generation and limited-income students with a comprehensive array of support, Penn First Plus equips undergraduates for success during and after their time at Penn.
The eighth annual Penn Local Business Exchange brought together entrepreneurs, city officials, and University buyers to swap insights and build relationships.
The street of the future isn’t just for cars—it’s designed for life
In an opinion essay, Yadan Luo of the Weitzman School of Design writes that an innovation in Chinatown that uses a movable market stall to turn a roadway into a pedestrian plaza could create temporary community spaces throughout the city.
Josh Shapiro has a full-circle moment at Pennsylvania Society dinner in NYC, and David L. Cohen is honored
Former trustees chair David Cohen was honored at the annual Pennsylvania Society dinner in New York City. President Emerita Amy Guttmann was among those praising him.
