School of Arts & Sciences

Penn’s Liliane Weissberg Named 2015-16 USC Shoah Foundation Teaching Fellow

Liliane Weissberg, a professor of German comparative literature in the School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania has been awarded the USC Shoah Foundation 2015-16 Rutman Teaching Fellowship. The award is offered annually by the Spielberg Foundation to a Penn faculty member to teach about the Holocaust.

Jacquie Posey

Evolution Is Unpredictable and Irreversible, Penn Biologists Show

Evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould is famous for describing the evolution of humans and other conscious beings as a chance accident of history. If we could go back millions of years and “run the tape of life again,” he mused, evolution would follow a different path. 

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Historian Discusses the Threat Birds Posed to the Power Grid in 1920s California

In 1913 in Southern California, two 241-mile-long electric lines began carrying power from hydroelectric dams in the Sierra Nevada to customers in Los Angeles—a massive feat of infrastructure. In 1923, power company Southern California Edison upgraded the line to carry 220,000 volts, among the highest voltage lines in the world at the time.

Katherine Unger Baillie

In Penn Grads’ Futures: Aircraft, Cruisers, Destroyers

By Julie McWilliams Unlike some new college graduates who aren’t sure what their futures hold, four May graduates of the University of Pennsylvania have known for years where their paths will lead. All completed the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Penn, and this spring, they finalized their duty stations.

Amanda Mott

Penn Telescope Minerva-Red Joins Hunt for Earth’s Twin

University of Pennsylvania astronomers are celebrating the dedication of a new planet-hunting telescope known as Minerva-Red. Installed at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona, Minerva-Red is part of the Minerva project, an array of low-cost telescopes that are designed to discover planets orbiting stars other than the sun.

Evan Lerner

Penn Students Share Stories Through Rap Music

For members of the Korean rap group Klass, expressing themselves through their music is empowering them to learn new skills and inspiring them to pursue their passions. When the group’s founder James An, was 10, his family moved from Gwangmyeong-Si, South Korea, to Vancouver, British Columbia, and as he was adapting to life in Canada he would emulate rap performers such as Eminem.

Jeanne Leong



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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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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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 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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