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Graduate Students

Open expression and the role of universities
Four people sit in chairs on an auditorium stage in front of a sign reading Living the Hard Promise.

The School of Arts & Sciences’ second installment of its “Living the Hard Promise”series looked at the current state of discourse around universities.

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Open expression and the role of universities

The second installment of the School of Arts & Sciences’ new dialogue series featured a discussion about the current state of discourse around universities.

Kristen de Groot

Penn’s ‘philosophers in residence’ engage Philadelphia youth with the hard questions
Jacqueline Wallis and two students at Philosophy Club.

Fourth-year Ph.D. student Jacqueline Wallis, middle, facilitated an exercise during Philosophy Club after school at the Academy at Palumbo, with high school students Leila Salama, left, and Marty Signes, right.

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Penn’s ‘philosophers in residence’ engage Philadelphia youth with the hard questions

Ph.D. students Jacqueline Wallis and Afton Greco are embedded at the Academy at Palumbo in South Philadelphia, where they give philosophy lessons on curriculum-relevant topics and run an after-school Philosophy Club.
Reading James Baldwin for a 21st century world
Nuri Yi, a Lotus member and second-year grad student in the Department of Biology in the School of Arts & Sciences, leads a discussion of Baldwin’s work at Kelly Writers House.

Nuri Yi, a Lotus member and second-year grad student in the Department of Biology in the School of Arts & Sciences, leads a discussion of Baldwin’s work at Kelly Writers House.

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Reading James Baldwin for a 21st century world

To commemorate Baldwin’s approaching centennial, the Lotus Collective is hosting weekly readings and discussions of his work at Kelly Writers House.
Structural elements of archaea
Photo of Yellowstone hotspring.

Archaea, a unique domain of life, were discovered in the 1970s in extreme environments such as hot springs and salty lakes, with notable early studies conducted in locations like Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Initially considered unusual bacteria, their distinct genetics and biochemistry led to their recognition as a separate domain, emphasizing microbial diversity and evolutionary complexity.

(Image: iStock / rmbarricarte)

Structural elements of archaea

Researchers shed light on archea, a single cell microorganism, to discover how proteins determine what shape a cell will take and how that form may function.
In Japan, teaching a multitude of creative anthropology practices
Three students work on a large map on a table.

Ritsumeikan University students work on a collective mapping exercise led by Penn anthropology Ph.D. student Pablo Aguilera Del Castillo, using markers, sticky notes, and stickers to annotate a map with the emotions, memories, and habits they associate with different parts of Kyoto.

(Image: Pablo Aguilera Del Castillo)

In Japan, teaching a multitude of creative anthropology practices

Penn anthropologists in the Center for Experimental Ethnography led workshops at Ritsumeikan University on performance, film, mapping, sound, and collaging.
The soils beneath the solar fields
Hannah Win takes soil samples at a solar site.

To take soil samples at the solar site, Hannah Winn wields a bulb planter and mixes samples from across locations, looking at variables such that reflect the biological, chemical, and physical properties of the soil.

(Image: Courtesy of AES)

The soils beneath the solar fields

How do solar farms impact soil health? It’s a question that master’s student Hannah Winn is exploring at the central Pennsylvania site where solar energy production is helping Penn progress toward carbon neutrality.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Finding new ways to evaluate voters’ beliefs
Nicholas Dias.

Nicholas Dias is a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication.

(Image: Courtesy of Annenberg School for Communication)

Finding new ways to evaluate voters’ beliefs

In his dissertation research, joint communication and political science doctoral student Nicholas Dias searches for new ways to gauge voter competency.

From Annenberg School for Communication

Romance and race
Illustration of a couple walking in a city in the snow.

Image: Adobe Stock/grandfailure

Romance and race

Sociology Ph.D. candidate Olivia Hu is studying how people choose romantic partners across race lines, and how those relationships affect their understandings of social difference.

Susan Ahlborn

Few options available to Western leaders weighing response to Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny’s death
Toronto Star

Few options available to Western leaders weighing response to Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny’s death

Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon of the School of Arts & Sciences says that Western countries have little practical leverage to push Russia off its authoritarian path after Alexei Navalny’s death, given the economic and diplomatic sanctions already levied against Vladimir Putin.

Penn named a ‘top producer’ of 2023-24 Fulbright Scholars 
students gathered on lawn under flowering trees

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Penn named a ‘top producer’ of 2023-24 Fulbright Scholars 

The U.S. Department of State has named Penn a Fulbright U.S. Student Program “top producing institution” for the 2023-24 academic year, as one of the colleges and universities with the highest number of recipients selected.