School of Arts & Sciences

A new study by University of Pennsylvania linguists shows that the Philadelphia accent has changed in the last century. The traditional Southern inflections associated with Philadelphia native-born speakers are increasingly being displaced by Northern influences.

Philadelphia has the fourth-highest drowning rate among children, and drowning is the leading cause of death among those aged 1-4.  In 2005-2009, African-American children aged 5-14 were three times more likely to drown than whites. Some students at the University of Pennsylvania are taking aim at those sad statistics by teaching life-saving skills in the pool to youngsters from Penn’s West Philadelphia neighborhood. 

Early diagnosis is critical in treating Lyme disease. However, nearly one quarter of Lyme disease patients are initially misdiagnosed because currently available serological tests have poor sensitivity and specificity during the early stages of infection.

A psychological experiment known as “the marshmallow test” has captured the public’s imagination as a marker of self control and even as a predictor of future success. This test shows how well children can delay gratification, a trait that has been shown to be as important to scholastic performance as traditional IQ.

Marissa Nicosia, a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania, and four alumni are recipients of Rare Book School Mellon Fellowships in Critical Bibliography for early-career scholars.

The zoot suit is remembered as a “killer-diller” men’s suit of a long bygone era, but it was more than just a fashion statement, as research by Kathy Peiss, a University of Pennsylvania historian, shows. 

University of Pennsylvania alum Evelyn Boettcher has been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue a Ph.D.

Craig Seligman wrote of the University of Pennsylvania’s latest Kelly Writers House Fellow,

Lawrence Lessig, a University of Pennsylvania alumnus and public intellectual, is leading a charge to overhaul the U.S. Constitution.