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Introducing Wharton dean Erika James
Erika H. James

Introducing Wharton dean Erika James

On July 1, James began a new chapter in her career as the first woman and first person of color to be appointed dean of the Wharton School in the institution’s 139-year history. 

From Wharton Stories

James Primosch continues to compose during COVID
James Primosch seated at his piano.

Professor of music James Primosch. (Image: Omnia)

James Primosch continues to compose during COVID

The professor of music, who won an award and released two new albums during the pandemic, discusses composition, text as music, and embracing electronic music in the absence of concert halls.

Susan Ahlborn

Jay Kirk on writing, teaching, and his new nonfiction book, ‘Avoid the Day’
Professor sitting outside with trees and a metal trailer behind him.

Jay Kirk, a lecturer in Penn's Creative Writing Program, just had a new book published, "Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in Two Movements." (Image: Julie Diana)

Jay Kirk on writing, teaching, and his new nonfiction book, ‘Avoid the Day’

Penn and Philadelphia are woven throughout a new book by Jay Kirk as he pursues the mystery of a missing music manuscript by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, traveling from Vermont to Europe to the Arctic Circle. Penn Today spoke the lecturer in nonfiction creative writing about “Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in Two Movements.”
Pandemic project: Odyssey-a-Day
Professor Emily Wilson dressed in costume as three different characters in the Odyssey, one with a fringed scarf around her head, one with an eye patch and a fur headband, and one with a wig with long red hair.

Penn Professor Emily Wilson created a new project while at home during the pandemic, reading short passages from each of the 24 books of her translation of Homer’s “Odyssey,” complete with costumes, props, and voices. The characters included (from left) Helen of Troy, Polyphemus, and Calypso.

Pandemic project: Odyssey-a-Day

Classics Professor Emily Wilson created a project where she filmed herself reading short passages from each of the 24 books of her celebrated translation of Homer’s “Odyssey,” complete with costumes, props, and voices.
Guthrie Ramsey’s creative journey of healing, collaboration, and persistence
Professor sitting at a piano

Music Professor Guthrie Ramsey has released a new album of songs, “A Spiritual Vibe, Vol. 1,” meant to pay homage to his many musical partnerships. (Image: NJR2 Photography)

Guthrie Ramsey’s creative journey of healing, collaboration, and persistence

Music Professor Guthrie Ramsey has released a new album of songs meant to pay homage to his many musical partnerships. The project was prompted by his cancer diagnosis and influenced by the global pandemic and uprising against racial injustice.
Penn football coach Ray Priore talks about no fall season, hope for spring
Philadelphia Inquirer

Penn football coach Ray Priore talks about no fall season, hope for spring

Penn football coach Ray Priore was game planning up until this past Monday, hoping his team might play this fall. Then the announcement came Wednesday: no sports in the Ivy League this fall semester. Now Priore is balancing his optimism with an understanding of the obstacles the pandemic brings to his sport.

How could human nature have become this politicized?
The New York Times

How could human nature have become this politicized?

Research about political polarization in the U.S. by Yphtach Lelkes of the Annenberg School for Communication, Matthew Levendusky of the School of Arts & Sciences, and colleagues at Stanford University was cited.

What the 1968 Kerner Commission can teach us
Historic image of police storming a storefront in 1967 during a riot in Detroit.

President Lyndon Johnson established the Kerner Commission to identify the genesis of the violence in the 1960s that killed 43 in Detroit and 26 in Newark. Pictured here, soldiers in a Newark storefront. (Image: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)

What the 1968 Kerner Commission can teach us

Criminologist and statistician Richard Berk, who worked on the report as a graduate student, explains the systemic racism and poverty found to underlie violent unrest in the 1960s and where COVID-19 and the economy fit today.

Michele W. Berger

Design faculty and Art for Philadelphia raise money against police brutality
Open magazine with a photo of Shirley Chisholm on the left and an article titled The Ticket That Might Have Been: Shirley Chisholm on the right.

Sharon Hayes, “President Chisholm,” 2020. (Image: Weitzman School)

Design faculty and Art for Philadelphia raise money against police brutality

Weitzman faculty members David Hartt and Sharon Hayes are among a group of Philadelphia-based artists participating in Art for Philadelphia, a fundraising initiative to support those protesting against police brutality.

From the Weitzman School of Design

Fixing the health care system: lessons from the pandemic
Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane (WHYY-FM)

Fixing the health care system: lessons from the pandemic

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel spoke about his work at Penn and in politics as well as the path to universal health care.