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Nixon’s China visit, 50 years later
President Richard Nixon smiles and shakes hands with a smiling Chairman Mao

In this Feb. 21, 1972 file photo, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, left, shakes hands with Chinese communist party leader Chairman Mao Zedong during Nixon's groundbreaking trip to China, in Beijing. Forged in absolute secrecy at the height of the Cold War 30 years ago, the diplomatic ties established between the United States and China were meant to balance out the Soviet threat. (Image: AP Photo/File)

  • Q&A

    • Nixon’s China visit, 50 years later

    On the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to the People’s Republic of China, David Eisenhower discusses the significance of the milestone amid the fraying relations between the two nations. 

    Kristen de Groot

    ‘Weaving is like a prayer’: Barnes Foundation shows its Native art collection for the first time

    ‘Weaving is like a prayer’: Barnes Foundation shows its Native art collection for the first time

    The Penn Museum contributed objects to a new exhibit at the Barnes Foundation that combines older and contemporary Native artworks. Penn’s Lucy Fowler Williams said she and her fellow curator “sought out artists whose work is really substantively engaging with the community and with the historical traditions.”

    The Ottawa trucker convoy is rooted in Canada’s settler colonial history

    The Ottawa trucker convoy is rooted in Canada’s settler colonial history

    Taylor Dysart, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Arts & Sciences, wrote an opinion piece about the legacy of settler colonialism and white supremacy in Canada. “Canada’s history of freedom then, was founded in the unfreedom of Indigenous people,” she said. “This dynamic has been unnoticed and misconstrued by organizers, attendees, and supporters of the Freedom Convoy.”

    Orthodox Jews and slavery in antebellum America
    Top of a synagogue spire with a star of David.

    Orthodox Jews and slavery in antebellum America

    School of Arts & Sciences undergraduate Samuel Strickberger investigates how 19th century Jewish migrants to the U.S. squared assimilation with the existence of slavery.

    Susan Ahlborn

    A chance to imagine memorials of tomorrow
    rocky steps in philadelphia

    A chance to imagine memorials of tomorrow

    A history course taught by Jared Farmer looks at Philadelphia’s monuments past and present, and lets students envision what future memorials may be.

    Kristen de Groot

    Studying the past through a modern-day lens
    Lynn Meskell standing in front of a glass display case at the Penn Museum.

    Lynn Meskell is the Richard D. Green Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor in the Department of Anthropology in the School of Arts & Sciences, a professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and the graduate program in Historic Preservation in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and a curator in the Middle East and Asia sections at the Penn Museum.

    (Image: Eric Sucar)

    Studying the past through a modern-day lens

    In a Q & A, archaeologist and PIK Professor Lynn Meskell discusses her background, the subjects that interest her—from espionage to World Heritage sites—and collaborations that have organically arisen at Penn despite the pandemic and a mostly remote first year.

    Michele W. Berger

    How Martin Luther King Jr. changed his mind about America

    How Martin Luther King Jr. changed his mind about America

    Kermit Roosevelt III of the Law School wrote about Martin Luther King Jr.’s lesser-known speech, “The Negro and he Constitution,” which argued that “American values” were more shaped by the ratification of the 14th Amendment than by the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “The values we must carry forward are not those of Thomas Jefferson and the Framers of the Constitution; they are the values of Abraham Lincoln and the Reconstruction Congress,” wrote Roosevelt.