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Sociology
What happens when someone’s skin color and racial identity don’t align?
Doctoral student Haley Pilgrim is trying to answer this question through her research, which focuses on second-generation multi-racial populations.
Testing the reproducibility of social science research
A team co-led by Gideon Nave of the Wharton School replicated 21 high-profile social science studies and found discrepancies with the original research. Researchers betting in prediction markets, however, were quite accurate at predicting which findings would replicate and which would not.
Centennial of Nelson Mandela’s birth
It has been 100 years since the birth of Nelson Mandela, elected as South Africa’s first black president after being imprisoned by the apartheid government for nearly three decades. Penn Professor Tukufu Zuberi of the School of Arts and Sciences discusses Mandela’s legacy and his continuing impact today.
Philly as lab, classroom, and collaborator
Philadelphia’s rich history and forward momentum make it ripe for scientific inquiry for a number of Penn schools and departments, from urban and population studies to medicine and anthropology.
Teachers view immigrant and minority parents as less involved in their children’s education
A study from Penn Sociology revealed that such perspectives from educators can end up hampering the academic trajectory of the students.
Science fiction or the future of trucking?
Driverless trucks seem like science fiction, part of a far-off world where robots and humans live and work side by side.
Shepherding discoveries from the lab to the pharmacy
In a new book, a biochemist, a sociologist, and an economist share insights into how biomedical discoveries become marketable innovations.
Opening the Teach-in by breaking down barriers
The first full day of the Penn Teach-in engaged participants with expert panels on vaccine denial and firearm violence, an "evolutionary walk through time," and a dialogue on the production and dissemination of knowledge.
In Philadelphia, intimate partner violence more likely in dating relationships
Not only that, but current boyfriends and girlfriends were more likely than current spouses to injure their victims.
Single-sex schools and unexpected STEM outcomes
Boys in all-boys’ schools do better on the general math test than boys in co-ed schools. They’re also more likely to take the science-focused math test. But test scores for girls do not improve in all-girls’ schools.
In the News
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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The truth behind the slouching epidemic
Beth Linker of the School of Arts & Sciences traces the history of a poor-posture epidemic in the U.S. which began at the onset of the 20th century.
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How two Mass. lawyers are helping DACA recipients stay in the US
Carlos Águilar González of the School of Arts & Sciences says that streamlining the D3 authorization process for DACA recipients may limit the number of people who can benefit by focusing only on the most prestigious and educated.
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The activist academy
In her book “Chasing the Intact Mind,” Amy S.F. Lutz of the School of Arts & Sciences argues that the current approach to disabilities studies marginalizes the most severely disabled.
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Ready or not, self-driving semi-trucks are coming to America’s highways
Steve Viscelli of the School of Arts & Sciences says that autonomous trucking could change the geography of the U.S. economy in the way that railroads and shipping did.
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