Can Galápagos businesses be eco-friendly and profitable at once?
In an effort to try for this, a group of Penn undergrads led by doctoral student Jesse Hamilton partnered with five small enterprises on the islands. Even amidst a global pandemic and local civil unrest, the pilot was a success.
Morgan Hoke is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and an Axilrod Faculty Fellow in the Population Studies Center in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She has worked at a field site in rural Nuñoa, Peru, since 2012.
Pizza, a nascent dairy industry, and infant health in the Peruvian highlands
Research from anthropologist Morgan Hoke shows that in homes that produce their own foods, children exhibit better growth rates and mothers report more autonomy and economic control.
Inspired to make her synagogue community more sustainable, Jane Horwitz of the Science Outreach Initiative helped congregants grow green beans for distribution to a local food pantry. (Image: Courtesy of Jane Horwitz)
Side Gigs for Good endure amid a pandemic
The Penn community’s altruism shines as the pandemic’s effects stretch on.
Penn archaeologist Joyce White (center) has been working in Laos since 2001 with teams like the one shown here. Discovering evidence of a 1,000-year drought in a Laos cave was unexpected, she says, but does answer some questions about the Middle Holocene, a period she’d previously described as the “missing millennia.” (Pre-pandemic image: Courtesy of Joyce White)
Southeast Asian megadrought dating back 5,000 years discovered in Laos cave
In a Q&A, Penn archaeologist Joyce White discusses the partnership with paleoclimatologists that led to the finding, plus possible implications of such a dramatic climate change for societies at that time.
Much like in traditional improv, participants in the Penn Memory Center’s Cognitive Comedy play off of each other, running scenes or throwing each other imaginary balls of varying sizes, for example. Though some facets changed as the sessions went virtual, the program remains well-loved and well-attended. (Pre-pandemic image: Terrance Casey)
An improv class that enriches the mind and soul, even remotely
The Penn Memory Center’s Cognitive Comedy program gives people with memory impairments and their caregivers a no-pressure space to think creatively, socialize, and be part of a community.
Like many Penn students who are part of the Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business through the Wharton School and School of Arts & Sciences, rising junior Julia Mitchell opted to go abroad for a semester this past spring. Despite a change in plans due to the pandemic, Mitchell immersed herself in the culture and language of France. (Image: Courtesy Julia Mitchell)
Experiencing the pandemic from abroad
When rising junior Julia Mitchell learned in March that France was about to shut down, she decided to immerse herself further in the language rather than come home, quarantining with her homestay family and finishing courses remotely.
As the pandemic hit, recent grad Alexandria Brake (holding “Go Team” sign) and colleagues at the St. James School in North Philadelphia began distributing groceries and other supplies to students and their families. (Image: Courtesy of Alexandria Brake)
More Side Gigs for Good during COVID-19
In the latest installment of the Side Gigs for Good series, Penn Today hears from faculty, staff, and students who have been continuing to care for their communities as the pandemic’s effects stretch on.
President Lyndon Johnson established the Kerner Commission to identify the genesis of the violence in the 1960s that killed 43 in Detroit and 26 in Newark. Pictured here, soldiers in a Newark storefront. (Image: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)
What the 1968 Kerner Commission can teach us
Criminologist and statistician Richard Berk, who worked on the report as a graduate student, explains the systemic racism and poverty found to underlie violent unrest in the 1960s and where COVID-19 and the economy fit today.
Morgan Hoke is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and an Axilrod Faculty Fellow in the Population Studies Center in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She has worked at a field site in rural Nuñoa, Peru, since 2012.
