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A fieldwork experience, no travel required
Three people sitting at a table outside all wearing masks. They are around a yellow bin. They are holding tweezers and inspecting small items in the bin. In the foreground are nine styrofoam containers, some with blurred plant material.

During the archaeobotany lesson led by Chantel White (not pictured) of the Penn Museum’s Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials—part of a two-week archaeology bootcamp—students including (from left to right) Ashley Ray, Emily Gladden, and Sarah LaPorte, learned a technique called dry sieving used to separate out organic materials like carbonized seeds, wood, and nutshell.

A fieldwork experience, no travel required

During a two-week in-person bootcamp at the Penn Museum, 11 undergrads learned basic archaeological skills in subjects from ceramics and sample-taking to archaeobotany.

Michele W. Berger

Supreme Court decision rules Arizona’s laws constitutional
Glass doors read "polling station" with opening times listed

“What you should be doing with voting is trying to make it as easy as possible for people to vote with the fewest restrictions,” says Mary Frances Berry. 

Supreme Court decision rules Arizona’s laws constitutional

In Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the Supreme Court ruled that Arizona’s election laws—pertaining to out of precinct ballots and whether or not third parties can pick up and deliver absentee ballots—do not violate the Voting Rights Act.

Kristina García

Collaborative report examines polling problems in the 2020 election
A stylized map of the United States is full of depictions of men and women packing the country

A newly released report from the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers (AAPOR) that takes a look at what went wrong with polling in 2020.

  • Q&A

    • Collaborative report examines polling problems in the 2020 election

    The Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies took a leading role in the newly released report on polling. The program’s faculty director, John Lapinski, shares his takeaways.

    Kristen de Groot

    The Sachs Program announces winners of AAPI grants
    Palawan seascape and boat with clouds in distance

    A photo of Palawan. Islands in the province of Palawan were the first to come under Spanish influence and is where archaeologists have found the first signs of human life in the Philippines. The region serves as a starting point for telling indigenous stories in Jo Tiongson Perez’s children’s book that will retell eight indigenous Philippine stories. (Image: Michael Perez)

    The Sachs Program announces winners of AAPI grants

    Fourteen projects will be funded as part of the program’s responsive call for proposals in support of Asian-American and Pacific Islander artists at Penn.
    U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, explained
    US soldiers holding guns are running behind a tank with an American flag on top in sand in Syria

    The 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team on the ground in Syria. (Image: The National Guard)

  • Q&A

    • U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, explained

    Sara Plana, a 2021-22 Postdoctoral Fellow at Perry World House, shares her thoughts on the airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed militias and the bigger picture of what’s happening in the region.

    Kristen de Groot

    The pandemic, health inequities, and an ‘opportunity for change’
    covid global map

    As a global pandemic, COVID-19 spread across the world. But it didn’t hit everyone equally. “Being healthy is essential to human flourishing,” says Jennifer Prah Ruger, who advocates for shared norms in health governance to address global inequalities. (Image: Martin Sanchez, also featured on homepage)

    The pandemic, health inequities, and an ‘opportunity for change’

    Experts across the University weigh in on which lessons the pandemic drove home and what immediate measures are needed to prevent future loss.
    Global Policy Forum focuses on ‘People, Planet, and Prosperity’
    A man in a suit and tie and glasses sits in profile in a white chair as he looks at three video screens in front of him: one showing an illustration of a light buld and the words global policy forum, the middle screen showing a man with glasses in front of a book case and the last screen on the right showing another man with glasses, grey hair and a beard

    The virtual Global Policy Forum featured leaders and thinkers from across the globe, including co-hosts Paolo Magri (in chair, left), Penn’s Jim McGann (center screen) and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (right screen).

    Global Policy Forum focuses on ‘People, Planet, and Prosperity’

    Penn’s Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, headed by Jim McGann, co-hosted the event that shared insights and proposals on the priorities of the G20 ahead of the group’s fall meeting 

    Kristen de Groot

    Leniqueca Welcome uses photography to explore the human experience
    Three dancers doing back bands with one leg raised on a sunlit beach.

    “The ways their bodies come together to make a continuous form against the backdrop of the water is simply poetic to me,” says Welcome. (Image: Leniqueca Welcome/OMNIA)

    Leniqueca Welcome uses photography to explore the human experience

    Welcome, a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology with specialties in urban studies and experimental ethnography, is a member of the Collective for Advancing Multimodal Research Arts (CAMRA).

    Blake Cole

    Giant comet found in outer solar system
    an image of the night sky with an object circled and annotated with Bernardinelli-Bernstein (C/2014-UN271)

    Giant comet found in outer solar system

    The discovery of the comet estimated to 100-200 kilometers across was made by Penn researchers following a comprehensive search of data from the Dark Energy Survey. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is the most distant comet ever discovered and possibly the largest seen in modern times.

    Erica K. Brockmeier