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Semester in D.C. offers capital connections
A group of students standing in front of two flag. The Penn in Washington Fall 2019 cohort visited U.S. Senate offices in September. (Image: Penn in Washington)

Semester in D.C. offers capital connections

Students participating in the Penn in Washington program gain a true sense of day-to-day working life in the nation’s capital.

Kristen de Groot

Fruit fly love songs
Two fruit flies on surface decorated with small hearts

Fruit fly love songs

Yun Ding, assistant professor of biology, studies the courtship behavior of fruit flies to learn how genes and brains evolve to change animal behaviors.

A hallmark year in voting history
a flag with three horizontal stripes with the words Votes for Women in the center

A vintage suffrage banner from the early 20th century. (Image: Birmingham Museums Trust)

  • Q&A

    • A hallmark year in voting history

    This year marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment as well as the bicentennial of Susan B. Anthony’s birth. Penn experts reflect on Anthony’s legacy and voting rights today.

    Kristina Linnea García

    The inaugural Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement fellowship cohort
    Two men stand in front of the brick and stone stairway leading to the Penn Museum

    Paul Wolff Mitchell (left) and Michael Vazquez (right) are the inaugural Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellows.

    The inaugural Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement fellowship cohort

    The Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement fellowship supports scholarship and civic engagement in West Philadelphia. Paul Wolff Mitchell, an anthropology doctoral student, and Michael Vazquez, a philosophy doctoral student, are the inaugural cohort.

    Kristina Linnea García

    The Amish and the Anthropocene
    Amish buggy traveling on a road with a farm in the background and snow-covered winter cropland in the foreground.

    The Amish and the Anthropocene

    Nicole Welk-Joerger, a doctoral candidate in the Department of History and Sociology of Science, discusses what a technology adopted by the Amish can tell us about climate change and the future.

    Penn Today Staff

    Nourishing the brain with conversations about food
    Two people standing next to a marble staircase, with stands and a sphinx blurry in the background.

    Penn archaeologist Megan Kassabaum (left) and biocultural anthropologist Morgan Hoke organized the series on food taking place at the Penn Museum on Mondays. During the fall semester, academics from nine institutions spoke on a range of topics, from food as life sustaining to how pizza and sushi gained their prominence. Spring semester, the talks have turned inward, focusing on the research happening across the University.

    Nourishing the brain with conversations about food

    A yearlong colloquium from Penn Anthropology offers a steady diet of research perspectives, delving into how this facet of culture affects modern health and practices, and broadens our historical outlook.

    Michele W. Berger

    The many lives of charcoal
    Penn alumna Catherine Nabukalu examines a bag of charcoal as two people work in a field in the background

    Environmental Studies master’s student Catherine Nabukalu worked with Professor Reto Gieré to study the charcoal supply chain. She visited and interviewed workers involved with its production and trade in a number of sites in Uganda. 

    The many lives of charcoal

    Catherine Nabukalu, an alumna of the Master in Environmental Studies program, worked with School of Arts and Sciences Professor Reto Gieré to track the charcoal supply chain through research in Nabukalu’s native Uganda.

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    Where math meets physics
    a person standing in front of a chalkboard covered in equations

    Where math meets physics

    Collaborations between physicists and mathematicians at Penn showcase the importance of research that crosses the traditional boundaries that separate fields of science.

    Erica K. Brockmeier

    International film and the Oscars
    Oscars Statue with Film Reel
  • Q&A

    • International film and the Oscars

    Cinema & Media Studies Senior Lecturer Meta Mazaj describes Hollywood's traditional attitude toward international films and the chances of Korean film “Parasite” winning Best Picture at the Oscars.