School of Arts & Sciences

Blacklegged tick populations have expanded via migration

Lyme disease cases are on the rise, with diagnoses occurring in areas that were historically Lyme-free. Scientists attribute the spread to the fact that populations of blacklegged ticks, which carry the bacteria that causes the disease, now flourish in areas once thought to be devoid of ticks.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Open Learning Fosters Academic Engagement Across Continents

After meeting online as students in University of Pennsylvania music professor Carol Muller’s open learning course, a professor at a small college in Central Appalachia and a teacher at a university in Ecuador began a dynamic collaboration.

Jacquie Posey

Serendipitous Path Opens Doors to an Education at Penn

Jason Morgan held a variety of jobs through his 30s, but it was a job lay-off during the economic downturn that led him to the University of Pennsylvania. In 2009, Morgan lost his job as a wedding photographer but soon found a job as a clerk at a restaurant on the Penn campus.

Jeanne Leong

Penn Research Simplifies Recycling of Rare-earth Magnets

Despite their ubiquity in consumer electronics, rare-earth metals are, as their name suggests, hard to come by. Mining and purifying them is an expensive, labor-intensive and ecologically devastating process.

Evan Lerner



In the News


Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Civil discourse: Tips for navigating potentially divisive discussions around the holiday table

Research co-authored by Matthew Levendusky of the School of Arts & Sciences found that political discussions between members of opposing voting parties helped reduce polarization and negative views of the other side.

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Associated Press

Archaeologists discover 4,000-year-old canals used to fish by predecessors of ancient Maya

Jeremy Sabloff of the School of Arts & Sciences and Penn Museum says that ancient fish-trapping canals show continuity in Maya culture.

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Chicago Sun-Times

UChicago students, Barrington native among 2024 Rhodes Scholars heading to University of Oxford

College of Arts and Sciences fourth-year Om Gandhi from Barrington, Illinois, has been awarded a 2025 Rhodes Scholarship for graduate study at the University of Oxford.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Penn student awarded Rhodes Scholarship to continue cancer research at Oxford University

College of Arts and Sciences fourth-year Om Gandhi from Barrington, Illinois, has been awarded a 2025 Rhodes Scholarship to continue his cancer research at Oxford University.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Penn has preserved a pair of gloves said to belong to Shakespeare. Did they?

Alicia Meyer and Tessa Gadomski of Penn Libraries are researching whether a pair of centuries-old gloves belonged to Shakespeare, with remarks from Zachary Lesser of the School of Arts & Sciences.

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