School of Arts & Sciences

side by side portraits of Dudley Weldon Woodard and William Waldron Schieffelin Claytor

Penn’s pioneering mathematicians

Two of the first African Americans to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics, Dudley Weldon Woodard and William Waldron Schieffelin Claytor worked on fundamental problems in the field of topology and supported graduate-level math education for minority students.

African American person tearing off an I Voted Today sticker

African Americans have been blocked from voting, but the Black vote is not a ‘bloc’

Black History Month’s theme for 2020 is African Americans and the Vote. Three Penn scholars define what the “Black vote” means when viewed through history, and what it doesn’t mean when viewed as an indivisible bloc.

Learning civil discourse and open-mindedness from high schoolers

In the city’s first regional Ethics Bowl, facilitated by Penn philosopher Karen Detlefsen and Graduate School of Education doctoral student Dustin Webster, six local teams competed for a chance at Nationals.

Helpful interactions can keep societies stable

New work by Erol Akçay of the School of Arts and Sciences and Jimmy Qian, a recent alum, challenges 50-year-old predictions that mutualistic interactions make a community unstable.

Michael Horowitz named director of Perry World House and Richard Perry Professor

As director of Perry World House, Horowitz will lead the center which was founded in 2015 for scholarly inquiry, teaching, research, international exchange, policy engagement, and public outreach on pressing global issues.

Person in middle of open market in Seoul

Less and later marriage in South Korea

Sociologist Hyunjoon Park sheds light on why marriage rates are falling in South Korea, particularly among highly educated women and low-educated men.

New Penn Integrates Knowledge professor karen tani

Karen Tani named a Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor

Karen Tani has been named the University of Pennsylvania’s 24th Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, effective July 1. The announcement was made today by President Amy Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett.

#GLASSFEST brings Philip Glass scores to Penn

#GLASSFEST, which runs for three weeks at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, celebrates the legacy of composer Philip Glass.

Lorene Cary stands in her office with a wall of bookshelves behind her

A time traveling Harriet Tubman, brought to life on stage

English faculty Lorene Cary’s first play features a time traveling Harriet Tubman who toggles between her 19th-century life and a present-day Philadelphia prison where she recruits soldiers to fight with her in the Civil War. Playing to sold-out audiences, “My General Tubman” is on stage through mid-March at Arden Theatre Company.

Illuminating interactions between decision-making and the environment

With a unifying model based in game theory, Andrew Tilman, Joshua Plotkin, and Erol Akçay of the School of Arts and Sciences inform dynamics in fields as diverse as ecology and economics.

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