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Decolonize the future: Defending Indigenous rights and lands
Maya activist Cristina Coc speaks into a microphone on the Perry World House stage

Cristina Coc, a Q’eqchi’ Maya community leader who founded and is program director of the Julian Cho Society, was one of three activists from Belize at the Perry World House event. (Image: Courtesy of Perry World House).

Decolonize the future: Defending Indigenous rights and lands

Three Maya activists from Belize spoke with Richard M. Leventhal about the challenges and progress they’ve made on land rights in recent years.

Kristen de Groot

Poet Wes Matthews combines writing, music, research, and service
Wes Matthews leaning in a doorway at the Kelly Writers House

Matthews says he plans to write poetry throughout his life, and hopes someday to collaborate on a poem or book with his mother. 

Poet Wes Matthews combines writing, music, research, and service

College fourth-year Wes Matthews is combining writing, music, research, and service during his Penn experience. A former Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, the anthropology major and religious studies minor works at the Kelly Writers House and is a Wolf Humanities Center fellow.

Louisa Shepard

‘Citizenship on the Edge’
A book cover depicting a woman wearing a striped top and face and body paint. She is holding a rainbow flag. The book cover reads: Citizenship on the Edge: Sex/Gender/Race

A new book by anthropologist Deborah A. Thomas and political scientist Nancy J. Hirschmann compiles a series of essays examining citizenship from an interdisciplinary lens. 

  • Q&A

    • ‘Citizenship on the Edge’

    In a new book, anthropologist Deborah A. Thomas and political scientist Nancy J. Hirschmann look at who’s kept out of social governance and belonging.

    Kristina Linnea García

    The story the bowls tell
    penn museum incantation bowl being examined

    Gross and Elitzur-Leiman are studying some intact, pristine bowls and others, like the one above, that are in pieces. “The sherds tell a story, too,” says Blanchard.

    The story the bowls tell

    In an ambitious new project, historian Simcha Gross and Harvard’s Rivka Elitzur-Leiman are studying hundreds of ancient incantation bowls housed at the Penn Museum. They hope to better understand the objects and eventually, build a database of all these bowls worldwide.

    Michele W. Berger

    Solving the mystery of migration into Micronesia
    A map of the Pacific Ocean. Australia is in the bottom-left corner, with Indonesia and New Guinea to the north. Also pinpointed are Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, with arrows signifying five migration paths designated M1, M2, M3, M4, and M5. M1, M2, and M4 originate in East Asia. M3 originates around New Guinea, and M5 originates between Polynesia and Melanesia.

    Map of five inferred streams of migration into Micronesia. (Image: Liu et al., 2022, “Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers,” Science, Vol 377, Issue 6601, pp. 72-79, DOI: 10.1126/science.abm6536)

  • Q&A

    • Solving the mystery of migration into Micronesia

    Penn anthropologist Theodore Schurr explains how the use of both ancient DNA and modern genetic materials revealed five paths into this western Pacific region of Oceania, and uncovered subtleties about the society’s marital customs.

    Michele W. Berger

    Faith, athletic drive, and the Midwestern spirit
    Thrower Cam Landis stands in front of the Penn Museum, where the anthropology museum is based.

    Cam Landis, thrower, football player, anthropology major, and Midwesterner, explored his Jewish roots at Hillel, culminating in a bar mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City. 

    Faith, athletic drive, and the Midwestern spirit

    May graduate Cam Landis, an anthropology major from Madison, Ohio, played on the offensive line for the football team, walked on to the track team as a thrower—and delved into his Jewish roots at Hillel.

    Kristina Linnea García

    A multidisciplinary approach to considering the Earth’s changing systems
    view of earth from space

    (Homepage image) Touching on a broad range of topics from climate’s impact on national security to resilient building design to emissions related to food production, the course aimed to boost students’ understanding of earth systems and climate literacy. (Image: NASA)

    A multidisciplinary approach to considering the Earth’s changing systems

    Bringing expertise from each of their disciplines, the School of Arts & Sciences’ Kathleen Morrison and Joseph Francisco and the Environmental Innovations Initiative’s Melissa Brown Goodall infused chemistry, anthropology, policy, and more into an introductory course on climate and the environment.

    Katherine Unger Baillie