School of Arts & Sciences

When incoming freshman at the University of Pennsylvania are introduced to academic life through the Penn Reading Project this summer, the content of the material won’t be a book but a movie, “Citizen Kane.”

Try this thought experiment from the world of philosophy. Imagine a train moving quickly down a track. On its current route, call it Path A, five people stand fixed in place; in another direction, Path B, one immoveable individual waits. A single flip of a switch, at which you happen to be standing, shifts the train’s direction from Path A to B, saving five people but dooming one.

Two faculty members from the University of Pennsylvania have been selected for membership in the American Philosophical Society. They are Ronald Fairman and Rogers Smith.

Caitlin Doolittle was looking to participate in a new experience this summer. She found it, and it involved decades-old lamp posts. 

Art historian Julie Nelson Davis of the University of Pennsylvania feels lucky to be affiliated with two projects at the Smithsonian’s Freer|Sackler Galleries in Washington, D.C.

In humans, it’s well documented that having a healthy social life is associated with better physical health. The same is true for baboons: females who have close bonds with other females live longer and have greater reproductive success.

Robert Frost enthusiasts are familiar with the poet’s written work, and perhaps some recordings of his performances, but now they can hear previously unreleased recordings on PennSound, the free, web-based archive offered by the University of Pennsylvania's Cen

It has remained frustratingly difficult to develop a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, in part because the virus, once in our bodies, rapidly reproduces and evolves to escape being killed by the immune system.

When University of Pennsylvania student Martine White heard that Philadelphia had won the bid to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention, she knew that she wanted to be a part of history. 

President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price are pleased to announce the appointment of Beth Simmons as the University of Pennsylvania’s eighteenth Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, effective July 1, 2016.