Dot Porter’s Digital Surrogates course, seen here in Lea Library, was one of nine offered during the DReAM Lab. Topics ranged from text analysis to digital humanities in the classroom. (Photo: Sarah Milinski)
A deep dive into digital humanities at Penn
The weeklong DReAM Lab, put on by the Price Lab for Digital Humanities and the Penn Libraries, offered participants the chance to study a range of subjects, from text analysis to augmented reality and Afrofuturism.
The lab of neuroscientist Johannes Burge (above) focuses on how the human visual system processes the images that fall on the back of the eye. This line of work, closely related to a 100-year-old illusion called the Pulfrich effect, could have serious public safety and public health implications.
When a fix for one vision problem causes another
Aging diminishes the ability of the eyes to focus up close. New Penn research reports that monovision, a common prescription lens correction to mitigate this issue, can cause dramatic misperceptions of depth and 3D direction for objects in motion.
Philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe was both a divisive figure and one of the most important female philosophical minds of her time. Notebooks filled with old postcards and scrawled responses, like those viewed here by graduate student Paul Musso (left), associate professor Errol Lord, and graduate student Marie Barnett, reveal Anscombe’s thought process as she corresponds with Anthony Kenny, a philosopher and priest, about God and faith.
Historical treasures of ‘most talented woman in 20th-century philosophy’ come to Penn
On loan from the Collegium Institute, an archive of materials written to and by Elizabeth Anscombe will be at the Libraries’ Kislak Center for Special Collections for the next three years.
A Penn Global Seminar on global deaf culture led by Penn linguist Jami Fisher (5th from left) included visiting sites in Rome, Italy, like Bernini’s Fontana dei Quatro Fiumi in Piazza Navona, above. Often, the group was led by a guide who was signing in Italian sign language. It gave the students a chance to experience what life is like not only for deaf people in general, but also a deaf community in another part of the world. (Photo courtesy: Jami Fisher)
Connecting with a Deaf community on the other side of the world
On a trip abroad to Italy that capped off the Penn Global Seminar taught by linguist Jami Fisher, students got a firsthand look at the diversity and variety of global deaf culture.
Advice-giving benefits the person sharing guidance
In a Q&A, Wharton postdoc Lauren Eskreis-Winkler discusses new findings that signal it may be time to shift how we think about motivation and achievement.
For non-Hispanic whites in the U.S., life expectancy outlook worsens
Research from Penn demographers shows that, though trends vary regionally, mortality is increasing, particularly for women, 25- to 44-year-olds, and those in rural areas.
A conversation about second-generation immigrants and mortality
In a Q&A, Penn demographer Michel Guillot discusses recent work showing that male children of immigrants from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia have a mortality rate nearly double that of the native population in France.
What influences how parents and their gay adolescent sons talk about sexual health at home?
Research from Penn found that even when parent-child conversations avoid heteronormative stereotypes, outside factors like mass media and religion—those beyond the parents’ control—can reinforce them.
For incarcerated women, From Cell to Home offers a second chance
The program, run by the Ortner Center’s Kathleen M. Brown with support from Penn student volunteers and the Quattrone Center, works to secure the release of reformed prisoners serving life sentences.
Rising senior Richard Ling started a nonprofit, Collective Cause, and through that, ran a competition called Sustainable Solutions. The goal was to encourage high school and college students to brainstorm local solutions to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Contest fosters local solutions to global sustainability challenges
SoleProvider won the Sustainable Solutions competition created by rising senior Richard Ling. The automated texting system offers Philadelphia’s homeless a simple way to request a particular need and for users to fulfill it.
