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Graduate Students

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

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.

Louisa Shepard

Lessons from the 17th century ‘New Netherland’
Molly Leach.

Molly Leech is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the School of Arts &N Sciences Department of History.

(Image: Brooke Sietinsons)

Lessons from the 17th century ‘New Netherland’

Through study of the fur and wampum trade between the Lenape and Dutch in the 1600s, fourth-year history Ph.D. candidate Molly Leech is aiming to recenter Indigenous contributions to global trade.

Michele W. Berger

‘Natural’ deaths likely COVID-19 related
White flags honoring lives lost to the COVID-19 virus on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Many deaths during the pandemic which were not listed as /COVID-related may have, in fact, been as a result of COVID. In a collaborative study, researchers in the School of Arts & Sciences found that increases in non-COVID excess deaths occurred at the same time or in the month prior to increases in reported COVID-19 deaths in most U.S. counties, indicating that many COVID deaths went uncounted as such.

(Image: iStock/BriVisu)

‘Natural’ deaths likely COVID-19 related

New study led by Penn and Boston University provides the most compelling data yet to suggest excess mortality rates from chronic illnesses and other natural causes were driven by COVID-19 infections.
Celebrating Lunar New Year
A lion dancer gives instruction to one of the Penn Lions. Inside the frilly, pink and gold lion costume are two Penn students

A lion dancer gives instruction to one of the Penn Lions. Inside the frilly, pink and gold lion costume are two Penn students practicing a “stack,” where one dancer jumps on the other to give the appearance of a lion rearing on its hind paws.

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Celebrating Lunar New Year

With red envelopes, lion dances, and student performances, the Pan Asian Graduate Student Association rang in the Year of the Wood Dragon.

Kristina Linnea García

New dialogue series explores open expression and free speech
Sophia Rosenfeld and Beth Wenger sit on chairs on a wooden stage in front of a black board and a sign reading Penn Arts & Sciences, as Rosenfeld addresses the audience.

Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Beth S. Wenger then led historian Sophia Rosenfeld in a conversation examining the purpose, history, and challenges of open expression on campus. 

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New dialogue series explores open expression and free speech

The School of Arts & Sciences launched the “Living the Hard Promise” series with a conversation examining the purpose, history, and challenges of open expression across campus.

Kristen de Groot