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Q&A

Venezuela’s disputed election and unrest
A crowd of people protesting the election in Venezuela.

Government supporters rally in defense of President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 30, 2024, two days after the disputed presidential election.

(Image: AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Venezuela’s disputed election and unrest

Ángel Alvarado, a senior fellow in the Department of Economics and former Venezuelan congressman, shares his thoughts on the power struggle and ongoing crisis. 

Kristen de Groot

Takeaways from the U.K. elections
Keir Starmer shakes hands with supporters holding signs that say Change and look like the UK flag.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer with his supporters at the Tate Modern in London on July 5, 2024.

(Image: AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Takeaways from the U.K. elections

Political scientist Brendan O’Leary of the School of Arts & Sciences offers his take on the Labour Party’s landslide victory and what it means going forward.

Kristen de Groot

The Immigration Act of 1924
A group of Chinese and Japanese women and children waiting to be processed, held in a wire mesh enclosure. Benches line either sides of the room, with a stool in the middle.

A group of Chinese and Japanese women and children waiting to be processed, held in a wire mesh enclosure at the Angel Island Internment barracks in San Francisco Bay. The Angel Island Immigration Station processed one million immigrants from 1910 to 1940, mostly from China and Japan.

(Image: AP Photo/File)

The Immigration Act of 1924

A century after a federal law established a national quota system on immigration, legal historian Hardeep Dhillon explains the significance and legacy of the Immigration Act of 1924.

Kristina García

Addressing declining fertility
Artist rendering of fertility decline. Depopulation, demographic crisis. Baby bottles in the form of graph and down arrow.

In a recent paper, PIK Professor Michael Platt and the Perelman School of Medicine’s Peter Sterling posit that the underlying mechanism of the looming concern of human fertility declines is the epidemic of despair.

(Image: iStock / TanyaJoy)

Addressing declining fertility

In a Q&A with Penn Today, Michael Platt talks about the socioeconomic and emotional factors leading to plummeting fertility rates.
Understanding the Northeast earthquake
Photograph of a seismograph reading following an earthquake.

Last week people in the Northeast experienced a rare earthquake that registered a magnitude of 4.8. To learn more about the mechanics of earthquakes and this occurrence, Penn Today spoke with David Goldsby of the School of Arts & Sciences and Robert Carpick of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

(Image: iStock/allanswart)

Understanding the Northeast earthquake

Last week, people in the Northeast experienced a rare earthquake that registered a magnitude of 4.8. Penn Today spoke with David Goldsby of the School of Arts & Sciences and Robert Carpick of the School of Engineering and Applied Science about the event.
‘Bankrolling Empire: Family Fortunes and Political Transformation in Mughal India’
Painting from 18th century shows an Indian banker being carried in a carriage and surrounded by armed entourage.

Late 18th century portrait of banker Vakhatchand Jhaveri and his armed entourage, painted on the inner marble wall of the Jain temple Ajithnath Derasar in Ahmedabad, India.

(Image: Courtesy of Sudev Sheth)

‘Bankrolling Empire: Family Fortunes and Political Transformation in Mughal India’

A new book by Sudev Sheth, senior lecturer in history and international studies, looks at how the leaders of one of the most dominant early modern polities lost their grip over empire.

Kristen de Groot

Weitzman’s Vanessa Grossman on the cultural value of architecture
Vanessa Grossman.

Image: Eric Sucar

Weitzman’s Vanessa Grossman on the cultural value of architecture

In a Q&A, the architect, historian, and curator discusses her research and published books, which explore the relationship between architecture, politics, and social movements.

From the Weitzman School of Design