Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies

A summer optimizing obstetrics health care

Second-year student Antoilyn Nguyen spent their summer as a researcher analyzing labor and delivery charts as part of a long-term cohort study to standardize labor induction for better and more equitable results.

Tina Rodia

Possessed: The Salem witch trials

This spring marks the 330th anniversary of the Salem witch trials, during which a total of 20 “afflicted girls” accused around 150 people, 19 of whom were executed. Historian Kathleen M. Brown discusses why this episode is still fascinating today.

Kristina García

The ‘music’ of one poet’s words, translated

With help from her daughter, scholar Huda Fakhreddine published an English version of 30 poems for children written by her father in Arabic, paying tribute to their endearing and enduring subject matter and to the musicality and richness of their sound.

Michele W. Berger



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In the News


Associated Press

Women’s Day events highlight major gaps in gender equality

Kristen Ghodsee of the School of Arts & Sciences says that International Women’s Day has a history of promoting progressive, socialist causes within the entire working class.

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Technical.ly Philly

An LGBTQ health initiative at Penn just launched a 5-year partnership with investing group Gaingels

The School of Nursing’s Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative has partnered with Gaingels to leverage academic, intellectual, and research resources across Penn and promote health within queer populations.

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Chicago Tribune

Review: ‘The First Homosexuals’ at Wrightwood 659 captures the emergence of a ‘new identity’

A review examines “The First Homosexuals,” an exhibition curated by Jonathan D. Katz of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues including Pavel Golubev, a visiting scholar taking refuge at Penn.

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Times Higher Education

Europe is ahead of the U.S. on gender equity. So why is abuse in HE rife?

In an opinion piece, Susan B. Sorenson of the School of Social Policy & Practice contrasts Europe’s pronounced efforts to reduce gender inequality with recent studies which find alarming rates of gender-based violence in European universities.

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ABC News

Weinstein, Masterson trials highlight the uphill battle to address sexual violence

Melissa Sanchez of the School of Arts & Sciences says that prosecutors should try Weinstein with many cases in many jurisdictions to reinforce the scope and scale of his actions.

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The Washington Post

What Iran’s protest slogans tell us about the uprising

Fatemeh Shams of the School of Arts & Sciences says that Iranian protest chants have shifted emphasis from male political figures and systemic reform to teenaged female martyrs and rejection of any form of autocratic rule.

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