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Exploring the 1918 pandemic’s impact on Philadelphia’s Black and immigrant neighborhoods
Matthew Breier reads city directory.

Matthew Breier, a rising third-year student in the College of Arts and Sciences, spent a lot of time going through Philadelphia’s 1918 city directory this summer. Through the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program, he is helping professor David Barnes understand the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on the city’s Black and immigrant neighborhoods.

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Exploring the 1918 pandemic’s impact on Philadelphia’s Black and immigrant neighborhoods

Rising third-year Matthew Breier has been conducting research with public health historian David Barnes through the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program.
Redlining and rentals
An aerial view of the Park Forest housing development outside of Chicago in the 1950s.

Aerial view of a Park Forest neighborhood in 1952 that captures the neat rows of homes that characterized the post-World War II housing boom in the planned community.

(Image: Owen Kent via the Chicago Historical Society)

Redlining and rentals

Historian Brent Cebul in the School of Arts & Sciences is working on a new digital mapping project looking at the impact of Federal Housing Administration policies on the availability of affordable rental housing post-World War II. 

Kristen de Groot

The Civil Rights Act at 60
president johnson with martin luther king, jr signing civil rights act

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson reaches to shake hands with Martin Luther King Jr. after presenting the civil rights leader with one of the 72 pens used to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1964. Surrounding the president, from left, are, Rep. Roland Libonati, D-Ill., Rep. Peter Rodino, D-N.J., Rev. King, Emanuel Celler, D-N.Y., and behind Celler is Whitney Young, executive director of the National Urban League.

(Image: AP Photo)

The Civil Rights Act at 60

To mark the anniversary, Mary Francis Berry, Marcia Chatelain, and William Sturkey of the School of Arts & Sciences and Deuel Ross of Penn Carey Law offer takeaways on the landmark legislation.

Kristen de Groot , Kristina Linnea García

Penn Global Seminar offers a look at Italy’s Palermo in Empires, Migrations, and Mafia
Students in front of Palermo's Teatro Massimo, the third-largest opera house in Europe. 

The class poses in front of Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, the third-largest opera house in Europe.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Global)

Penn Global Seminar offers a look at Italy’s Palermo in Empires, Migrations, and Mafia

As part of the spring course Domenic Vitiello of the Weitzman School of Design and School of Arts & Sciences led students on a trip exploring Sicily’s capital and its eras of colonization, imperial rule, Mafia, and migration.

Kristen de Groot

Beth Linker’s new book explores the science of posture
A teenager with headphones slouching over their phone.

Image: iStock/Egoitz Bengoetxea Iguaran

Beth Linker’s new book explores the science of posture

A new book from history and sociology of science professor Beth Linker investigates how and why a panic around posture emerged in America in the 20th century.

From Omnia

The Immigration Act of 1924
A group of Chinese and Japanese women and children waiting to be processed, held in a wire mesh enclosure. Benches line either sides of the room, with a stool in the middle.

A group of Chinese and Japanese women and children waiting to be processed, held in a wire mesh enclosure at the Angel Island Internment barracks in San Francisco Bay. The Angel Island Immigration Station processed one million immigrants from 1910 to 1940, mostly from China and Japan.

(Image: AP Photo/File)

  • Q&A

    • The Immigration Act of 1924

    A century after a federal law established a national quota system on immigration, legal historian Hardeep Dhillon explains the significance and legacy of the Immigration Act of 1924.

    Kristina Linnea García