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University announces Penn Global Middle East Distinguished Visiting Scholar Initiative
Dahlia Scheindlin, Shay Hazkani, and Amal Jamal

(Left to right) Dahlia Scheindlin, Shay Hazkani, and Amal Jamal are the inaugural Distinguished Visiting Scholars in the Penn Global Middle East Distinguished Visiting Scholar Initiative.

(Left image: Eyal Warshavsky)

University announces Penn Global Middle East Distinguished Visiting Scholar Initiative

The program will formally launch in fall 2025 with the arrival of the inaugural visiting scholar, Dahlia Scheindlin, followed by Shay Hazkani in spring 2026, and Amal Jamal in fall 2026.
Penn students get convention access in extraordinary political times
students at the dnc pose for a group photo

(On homepage) Eisenhower and Margolies have been taking Penn undergraduate students to the Democratic and Republican conventions every presidential cycle since 2000—except for 2020, due to the COVID pandemic—as part of their Conventions, Debates, and Campaigns course, offered every four years.

(Image: Lex Gilbert)

Penn students get convention access in extraordinary political times

Undergrads who attended the Republican or Democratic convention this summer are breaking down their experiences during the Conventions, Debates, and Campaigns course, taught by David Eisenhower, Marjorie Margolies, and Craig Snyder.
Libraries exhibition explores the movement of books
a hand on a hand-made book with moveable parts

Various types of books were created for the exhibition that visitors can touch, including one of wood inspired by medieval illuminated manuscripts.

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Libraries exhibition explores the movement of books

A new exhibit at the Penn Libraries explores the myriad ways books move—as physical objects in different formats, and across space and time—featuring 24 items from the collection, a video wall displaying 26 additional items, and interactive models.

Louisa Shepard

Studying Wikipedia browsing habits to learn how people learn
Network schematic of peoples' browsing activity on Wikipedia.

Shown here: A hyperlink network from English Wikipedia, with only 0.1% of articles (nodes) and their connections (edges) visualized. Seven different reader journeys through this network are highlighted in various colors. The network is organized by topic and displayed using a layout that groups related articles together.

(Image: Dale Zhou)

Studying Wikipedia browsing habits to learn how people learn

A collaborative team of researchers analyzed the information-seeking styles of more than 480,000 people from 50 countries and found that gender and education inequality track different types of knowledge exploration. Their findings suggest potential cultural drivers of curiosity and learning.
Airbnbs associated with more crime in London, new study shows
Police officers patrolling Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus in central London

“The fact that we still find an increase in crime despite Airbnb’s efforts reveals the severity of the predicament induced by the rise of home sharing,” says David Kirk, professor of criminology at Penn, who co-authored a study with University of Cambridge criminologist Charles C. Lanfear to study the impacts on crime of Airbnb lettings across London.

(Image: iStock/Paolo Paradiso)

Airbnbs associated with more crime in London, new study shows

Since its founding in 2008, the short-term homestay platform Airbnb has expanded to 100,000 cities in more than 220 countries, and, according to data from the company, 1.5 billion guests had stayed in Airbnb-listed properties through 2023.
‘What is the Enlightenment? Questions for the 18th Century’
A man looks at a stand-alone wall of carved busts in niches

Image: David von Becker/Deutsches Historisches Museum

‘What is the Enlightenment? Questions for the 18th Century’

In a new exhibition in Berlin, Liliane Weissberg of the School of Arts & Sciences curates hundreds of objects reflecting on the nature of Enlightenment and its continued significance today.

Kristina Linnea García

Introducing the Penn AI Council
Locust Walk on Penn’s campus in the fall.

The council will coordinate cross-school research opportunities, support new AI and data science scientists, and usher in the Penn Advanced Research Computing Center.

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Introducing the Penn AI Council

The Council consists of five faculty members collaborating to enhance visibility and impact of AI research across Penn.
Exploring the authenticity of a pair of storied gloves
Historic gloves in a case.

The gloves under ultraviolet light. 

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Exploring the authenticity of a pair of storied gloves

Kislak Center curator Alicia Meyer is researching a pair of gloves in the Penn Libraries collection rumored to have been William Shakespeare’s, enlisting the help of Tessa Gadomski in the Libraries conservation laboratory to see if the gloves could be from the 1600s.

Louisa Shepard

Penn solutions to climate change
Banner that reads climate week at Penn

At a Climate Week event, Penn’s Climate Solutions Showcase, a group of faculty and researchers from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Weitzman School of Design presented innovative strategies to combat the causes and effects of climate change.

(Image: Felice Macera)

Penn solutions to climate change

As society grapples with the impacts of a worsening climate—from the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events to rising sea levels and deadly heat waves—the need for actionable solutions has never been greater, Penn researchers say.