History | Penn Today

Melissa Teixeira stands in front of a conference room speaking to students.

Exploring inflation and economics through the lens of history

In Inflationary Times, a history course from Melissa Teixeira, students grappled with big-picture concepts of debt, money, and currency across the globe and through time.

4 min. read

Penn professor Benjamin Nathans wins Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction

Benjamin Nathans of the School of Arts & Sciences has won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for his book on Soviet dissidents.

Benjamin Nathans wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction

Nathans, the Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History in the School of Arts & Sciences, has taught at Penn since 1998.

2 min. read

Hands flipping through copy of Micrographia.

A novel and hands-on approach to teaching about technology and society

Elly Truitt teaches students about the history of communication technology, from the invention of writing to large language models, while introducing them to Penn’s libraries and unparalleled resources.

5 min. read

Top row: Dennis Discher, Michael Correa-Jones, and Cherie Kagan. Bottom row: Sophie Rosenfeld and Susan Weiss.

Five Penn faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Dennis E. Discher, Michael Jones-Correa, Cherie R. Kagan, Sophia Rosenfeld, and Susan R. Weiss are being recognized for their contributions to engineering, political science, history, and biology.

3 min. read

Rahim Ullah stands in front of a class of students speaking.

Connecting with Philadelphia’s immigrant Asian communities through food

Through the Asian American Food course with Fariha Khan, students explore the many depths of the immigrant experience of different Asian ethnic groups to learn about history and culture.

6 min. read

Forget Boston. Philly was where the Revolutionary War really went down

“The Revolutionary City: a Portal to the Nation’s Founding,” a collaborative project between Penn and historic Philadelphia institutions, has digitized multiple collections to show a complete and complicated view of the city during the American Revolution.

Never-before-seen scrapbooks tell the story of Pearl Bailey’s life from North Philadelphia to Hollywood

Digital collections specialists at Penn helped digitize scrapbooks to showcase the life of Pearl Bailey, a Tony Award winner and variety show host.

Reframing historical narratives of Jewish sorrow

Between colleagues in Penn’s Jewish Studies Program, conversations began to surface about two years ago concerning an age-old question of any society: How do we write history?

1 min. read

Sophia Rosenfeld leans against a bookshelf smiling.

Exploring the history of making choices, small and large

In a new book, Sophia Rosenfeld of the Department of History chronicles the past and present of an elusive idea—choice—and what it has meant and still means for people and society.