News Archives

McNeil Center for Early American Studies to Have Permanent Home

PHILADELPHIA-- The Barra Foundation and Robert L. McNeil Jr. have pledged $6 million to the University of Pennsylvania to build a permanent home for the McNeil Center for Early American Studies of the School of Arts and Sciences and to provide a permanent endowment for the building's operational costs. The new building will be located on 34th Street near Walnut Street.

When Self-Image Takes a Blow, Many Turn to Television as a Distraction

PHILADELPHIA – Whether you fancy yourself a jet-setting sophisticate or a down-to-earth outdoorsy type, a fast-track corporate star or an all-around nice guy, new research indicates that you probably tune out information that challenges your self-image by tuning in to television.The findings, by Sophia Moskalenko of the University of Pennsylvania and Steven Heine of the University of British Columbia, are presented in a paper published in the January issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

"Race, Gender and War: The Martin Luther King Legacy"

WHAT: A conversation with Michael Eric Dyson, Mary Frances Berry and Afaf Meleis on race, gender, class and militarism in Martin Luther King's time and today WHEN: Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2003, 5 p.m. WHERE: Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce St., Philadelphia

Penn Sociologist Receives Fulbright to Uruguay

PHILADELPHIA -- Frank Furstenberg, professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a Fulbright Senior Specialists Grant in Sociology at the Instituto de Economía.The Fulbright Senior Specialists Program offers two- to six-week grants to leading U.S. academics and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at academic institutions in 140 countries around the world.

Scientists Find New Evidence of Cell 'Promiscuity': Fully Differentiated Blood Cells Remain Able to Switch Identity

PHILADELPHIA – Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have found a new wrinkle in the developmental biology dogma that cell differentiation occurs irreversibly as stem cells give rise to increasingly specialized types of offspring cells. The researchers have shown that certain mouse cells retain an ability to oscillate between very distinct blood cell types – B-cells and macrophages – long after what has been commonly regarded as the point of no return.

Suburban Sprawl, Non-Traditional Cities

Susan Nigra Snyder is a lecturer in architecture and fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania, a partner at Company for the Civic Arts in Philadelphia and a member of the public art committee for the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia. Her research focuses on the effect commercial property in urban developments. Snyder says that sprawl development is not the city spreading out too far or the suburbs endlessly expanding -- people live in one area, work in another and shop in others. She sees the suburban development as a new type of city.

Tribute to Du Bois Being Held at Arthur Ross Gallery

PHILADELPHIA  The Arthur Ross Gallery, in cooperation with the Center for Africana Studies, is presenting Darkwater: Recital in Four Dominions, Terry Adkins after W.E.B. Du Bois, an exhibition celebrating 30 years of African American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, from Dec. 14-March 2, 2003.

Fisher-Hassenfeld Joint Gift Helps Transform Residential Life at Penn

PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania's historic Quadrangle has received a joint $11.5 million commitment from Penn alumni Alan Hassenfeld and Jerome Fisher and Fisher's wife Anne. In recognition of the gifts, Woodland College House will be renamed Fisher Hassenfeld College House, and an entrance to the Quad will be named the Fisher Hassenfeld Memorial Tower Gate. The Fisher-Hassenfeld commitment is the lead gift in the transformation of the Quad into three distinct college houses.

Tiny tot robocop

Out of Africa

At the Oct. 24 dedication of the Center for Africana Studies, new Penn faculty member Michael Eric Dyson gave its new director, Professor of Sociology Tukufu Zuberi, an interesting sobriquet, calling him “the Barry White of academe.” What did he mean by that? “You’ll have to ask Michael,” Zuberi said. Since we weren’t able to do that in time for this article, we’ll offer our own guess.