Graduate Students

The Class of 2023 moves in

On Aug. 21, the newest cohort of Quakers arrived on campus. Of all 2,400 incoming first-year students, nearly one-third arrived for Penn’s official Move-In day.

Tina Rodia

Dragon boating, on the world stage

Computer and information science doctoral student Barry Slaff trains six days a week for dragon boating on the Schuylkill River, and is headed to Thailand to compete in the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Minding the gap between mass transit and ride-hailing apps

With support from the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, doctoral students Caitlin Gorback and Summer Dong are researching how services like Uber and Lyft are changing our transport habits, cities, and environments.

Gina Vitale Michele W. Berger

Making insights into ancient marine ecosystems with 3D-printed shells

If you’re a snail hoping to survive an encounter with a hungry fish, it helps to have a strong shell. Paleoecology doctoral student Erynn Johnson is using 3D printing to understand how predator-prey interactions may have played out hundreds of millions of years ago.

Katherine Unger Baillie

A deep dive into digital humanities at Penn

The weeklong DReAM Lab, put on by the Price Lab for Digital Humanities and the Penn Libraries, offered participants the chance to study a range of subjects, from text analysis to augmented reality and Afrofuturism.

Michele W. Berger



In the News


The Conversation

Many wealthy members of Congress are descendants of rich slaveholders — new study demonstrates the enduring legacy of slavery

A co-authored study by Ph.D. student Neil Sehgal of the School of Engineering and Applied Science found that legislators who are descendants of slaveholders are significantly wealthier than members of Congress without slaveholder ancestry.

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KYW Newsradio (Philadelphia)

Penn analysis supports state commission’s recommendation for boost in Pa. education funding

An analysis by A. Brooks Bowden and doctoral candidates David Loeb and Katie Pullom of the Graduate School of Education outlines the measurable benefits of a $5.1 billion increase in Pennsylvania K-12 spending over seven years.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

A new idea for Market East: A ‘Welcoming District’ for immigrants who are driving population growth

Graduate students at the Weitzman School of Design are submitting speculative proposals for a Welcoming District near Philadelphia’s Fashion District that could replace or supplement the Sixers arena.

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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.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Bus Revolution would bring frequent bus service to 1 million SEPTA riders

In an Op-Ed, graduate student Jonathan Zisk of the Weitzman School of Design says that SEPTA should green-light the Bus Revolution project and allow the rollout of transformative bus service across the Philadelphia region.

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Baltimore Sun

What did I get from affirmative action? Three Ivy League degrees and another underway

In an Op-Ed, Wharton School doctoral student and Penn Carey Law student Olamide Dozier-Williams says that his academic journey reflects the value and educational equity once provided by affirmative action.

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