Greg Johnson

Heather Andrea Williams, a Presidential Professor and professor in the Department of Africana Studies in the School of Arts

Seventh-grade students across the School District of Philadelphia can travel back in time and explore Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt through the Penn Museum’s new “Unpacking the Past” program.

The dehumanizing system of racial segregation that flourished in the American South from the end of Reconstruction through the 1970s has a friend in the former caste system in India. Both were callous, heartless, and cruel, and marginalized an oppressed people.

When Dorothy Roberts was 3 months old, she moved with her parents from Chicago to Liberia, where her mother, Iris, had worked as a young woman after leaving Jamaica.

DREAM TEAM: Alex T. Williams, from Arlington, Texas, is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Annenberg School for Communication.

A dash of Picasso, a dose of William Blake, a formative boyhood in the Bronx, and a never-ending imagination stirred with artistic vigor formed William Steig, one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed cartoonists and children’s book authors.

Syria’s Great Mosque of Aleppo, or Umayyad Mosque, was built in the eighth century in the Ancient City of Aleppo, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

GREEN TREES: From Palos Verdes Estates in southern California, Sarah Lindstedt (pronounced like “instead” with an L) is a senior majoring in English and minoring in music. She is also music director of The Penny Loafers, a co-ed a cappella group at Penn.

The Philadelphia Eagles called Penn’s Franklin Field home for 13 seasons from 1958-70, after moving from the former Connie Mack Stadium at 24th and Lehigh.

It’s noisy out there—with alarms rousing and TVs blaring, cars honking and SEPTA trains roaring, dogs barking and jackhammers destroying, motorcycles gunning and airplanes soaring, sirens sounding and strangers shouting, it can all be astounding. Give your ears a break. Too much noise is bad for your health.