News Archives

Penn Center for Africana Studies Announces 30th Anniversary Program Series

PHILADELPHIA -- Writers, artists and scholars of African-American and African Diasporic studies will come to the University of Pennsylvania for a year-long series of programs celebrating 30 years of African-American studies at Penn. The free, public programs are sponsored by the Center for Africana Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences. The Center for Africana Studies, formerly the Afro-American Studies Program, examines the factors that created and shaped the African-American and African Diaspora experience.

Edwin Gordon Named Director of Mid-Career Program at Penn's Graduate School of Education

PHILADELPHIA --Edwin Gordon has been named director of the Mid-Career Doctorate in Educational Leadership program in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Penn, Gordon was a senior-level administrator in independent and public schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and served as an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Middle East Center and International House to Host Penn's First Middle Eastern Film Festival

PHILADELPHIA-- Movie goers will be introduced to new works from Middle Eastern film makers and films about the region when the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania joins with International House to host the area's first-ever Middle Eastern film festival. Seven films by film makers from Africa, Asia, the United States and France will be screened during the free festival Oct. 23-27 at International House, 3701 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia.

Kelly Writers House Connects with Poet Carl Rakosi

WHO: Carl Rakosi, poetTom Devaney, poetAl Filreis, professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania WHAT: Poetry reading by Carl Rakosi via audiocast on his 99th birthday WHERE: Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust WalkWorld Wide Web (e-mail whrakosi@english.upenn.edu for connection) WHEN: Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. EDT

Database Lets Researchers Worldwide Access the Genome of the Malarial Parasite Plasmodium falciparum

PHILADELPHIA – A database cataloging the genome of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite responsible for the vast majority of the world's malaria deaths, will be distributed to tens of thousands of scientists worldwide via a CD-ROM inserted in the Oct. 31 issue of the journal Nature.

Woodward cannot tell a lie

Today’s politicians still have not learned the lesson of Watergate, the scandal that brought down the Nixon White House. That was the message that Bob Woodward brought to about 900 people in Irvine Auditorium as part of the University Honor Council’s Third Annual Integrity Week earlier this month. Woodward, who as a young man broke the story of the Watergate scandal with fellow Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein, said neither Sen. Bob Toricelli nor former President Bill Clinton understood the lesson: “When you make a mistake, don’t try to excuse it.”

Sensitive dentists for sensitive smiles

For many elderly African-Americans, it is not all smiles when it comes to making a trip to the dentist. According to a new study by Ann Slaughter, assistant professor in the School of Dental Medicine, dentists’ chair-side manner is one reason why elderly African-Americans are staying away from the dentist in greater numbers compared to the general population. Misperception about the state of their oral health is another.

Ask Benny: The Ivy League, from fiction to the facts

Dear Benny,How did the Ivy League get its name? —I Bleed Red and Blue Dear Loyal Quaker, There are a number of apocryphal tales about the origins of the term “Ivy League,” including a widely-circulated one that attributes it to an 1890s alliance among Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Penn known as the “IV league,” after the Roman numeral four. The answer to this question, though, is found in the preface of Mark F. Bernstein’s “Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession” (Pennsylvania, 2001).

Empowered

In politics, even a loss can be turned to advantage if one plays one’s cards right. And that’s exactly what former broadcast journalist Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky has done with her brief tenure as a U.S. representative.

At Work With...Rudy Bowens and Kelly Buchanan