One year in, Penn Museum Director Christopher Woods has continued to lead the massive transformation of the 135-year-old institution’s building while reevaluating the collection, expanding the staff, strengthening community engagement, and addressing sensitive issues through new policies.
Christopher Woods on his first year as director of the Penn Museum
Penn Museum Director Christopher Woods leads the massive transformation of the 135-year-old institution’s building while reevaluating the collection, expanding the staff and community engagement, and addressing sensitive issues through new policies.
(Homepage image) Participants in the Penn Global Seminar to the Galápagos Islands traveled over winter break to see first-hand the ecology, evolution, and natural history of Galápagos, along with the growing impact of humans on this fragile place. (Image: Courtesy of Penn Abroad)
Exploration awaits as Penn Abroad ramps up student trips
Two years after the pandemic forced Penn Abroad to brings students home, trips are back on and a busier-than-normal abroad schedule is coming in fall 2022.
Bill Cullina, director of the Morris Arboretum, poses inside the Arboretum's Victorian fernery in March 2022.
A ‘reawakening’ of interest in nature
In a Q&A with Penn Today, Morris Arboretum Director Bill Cullina discusses lessons taken from the pandemic, adapting to climate change, and future research.
The water tank for the Olua I community is now installed and fully operational, with 10 filling stations where community members can obtain clean water. In the coming weeks, Maji aims to finish fencing the area around the water tank and installing additional irrigation equipment. (Images: Martin Leet)
Changing lives in refugee communities through access to clean water
As winners of the 2021 President’s Engagement Prize, May graduates Martin Leet and Leah Voytovich co-founded Maji, a nonprofit organization dedicated to projects that support refugee initiatives in Uganda.
From left: Josephine Park, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Dagmawi Woubshet, pictured in conversation on March 16, 2022.
Pulitzer-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen speaks on migration and ‘multitudes’
In a wide-ranging conversation sponsored by the Wolf Humanities Center, author and professor Viet Thanh Nguyen visited Penn to discuss his work, representation, and more.
In a controlled field experiment on Penn’s campus, biologists tracked fruit fly evolution over the course of four months, documenting some of the fastest rates of adaptation ever in animals. (Image: Seth Rudman)
Rapid adaptation in fruit flies
New findings from School of Arts & Sciences biologists show that evolution—normally considered to be a gradual process—can occur in a matter of weeks in fruit flies in response to natural environmental change.
In Asian American studies classrooms, “you get students from every single major, you get them from every single field, you get every class background, and you get every political background,” says David Eng. “What’s happened in the field of ethnic studies in general, is that you’ve had to create these horizontal communities among these generations of students.”
Asian American Studies’ 25th anniversary
The Asian American Studies program is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a podcast miniseries, weekly alumni events, and a March 19 conference.
(Homepage image) “What we needed to do for our physical health—quarantining, staying away from other people and social situations—even when that kind of avoidance is the right thing to do, it makes people more anxious,” says Elizabeth Turk-Karan of the Center for the Study and Treatment of Anxiety. What remains to be seen is how these emotions and many others will play out as the pandemic recedes.
The pandemic’s psychological scars
It’s been a long and uncertain road, with some groups shouldering a disproportionately greater burden of mental anguish from COVID-19. Yet now there’s a glimmer of hope. Has the page finally turned?
The senior forward on the women’s basketball team chats about playing basketball at age 3, working out with Dwight Howard, why she likes playing defense, her favorite memory from her Penn career, and her plans for the future.
For seven weeks, the ICA will be transformed into an experiential classroom environment, welcoming artists and the public to challenge what ‘infrastructure’ means in the world of art.
From left: Josephine Park, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Dagmawi Woubshet, pictured in conversation on March 16, 2022.
