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The winners and losers in post-Socialist Europe
Book cover of Taking Stock of Shock: Social Consequences of the 1989 Revolutions.

The winners and losers in post-Socialist Europe

Kristen Ghodsee and Mitchell Orenstein, professors of Russian and East European Studies, discuss their new book, “Taking Stock of Shock.”

From Omnia

Anti-vaxxers are claiming centuries of Jewish suffering to look like martyrs

Anti-vaxxers are claiming centuries of Jewish suffering to look like martyrs

Simcha Gross of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about how clothing was used to separate religious groups in the Middle Ages. “In Islam, distinction of clothing was part of a range of regulations that differentiated between Muslims and certain kinds of non-Muslims, which have their own lengthy and complicated history,” he said.

After the pandemic, how will society remember more than 3 million lives lost to COVID-19?
washington memorial with flags The COVID-19 Memorial Project installed thousands of flags in the National Mall last September to memorialize what was then the 200,000 Americans lost to COVID-19. (Image: angela n.)

After the pandemic, how will society remember more than 3 million lives lost to COVID-19?

To date, more than 3 million people worldwide have lost their lives to COVID-19.

Erica K. Brockmeier

The world according to Walter Palmer
Wearing a suit and tie, Walter Palmer stands outside of Penn's School of Social Policy and Practice with his hands in his pockets.
  • Q&A

    • The world according to Walter Palmer

    The educator, organizer, and alumnus discusses his six decades of activism, growing up in the Black Bottom, studying and teaching at Penn, his work at CHOP, the student strike of 1967, the Vietnam War, Frank Rizzo, Donald Trump, school choice, gun violence, the Chauvin trial, and why he thinks racism should be declared a national public health crisis.
    Biden’s big plans through the lens of history
    Man in laborer clothes holds shovel, smokes a pipe and looks at his paycheck by a sign reading "USA Work Program WPA"

    A Works Progress Administration worker receives his paycheck, 1939.

    (Image: Courtesy of the National Archives)

    Biden’s big plans through the lens of history

    Historian Walter Licht shares his thoughts on the American Jobs Plan and how it compares to national projects of the past.

    Kristen de Groot

  • Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

    • Understanding the imperialism of today

    In the latest episode of Penn Today’s ‘Understand This ...’ podcast series, assistant professor of political science Dorothy Kronick and assistant professor of history Alex Chase-Levinson discuss the past and present of imperialism.
    U.S. map and chess piece

    Welcome to the sixth episode of the “Understand This ...” series, a Penn Today podcast. This podcast series is designed as a journey to understand how to solve problems of the day—and of our time—by uniting minds from different disciplines. This episode explores the legacy of imperialism and the more elusive forms it can take in a modern context. 

    Joining for the conversation is Dorothy Kronick, assistant professor of political science in the School of Arts & Sciences, and Alex Chase-Levinson, assistant professor of history in the School of Arts & Sciences. Kronick has an expertise in Latin American politics, and Chase-Levinson focuses his research on modern Britain and Europe. Together, they tease out ways to interpret imperialism today, the legacy of imperial influence, and what new frontiers might be on the horizon. 

    5:20: Kronick discusses imperialism in Latin America and begins to define the term. 

    6:40: Chase-Levinson describes how the concept of a “nation state” has organized the world.

    10:12: Kronick on “economic imperialism” in Latin America. 

    12:30: A conversation about the U.S. policy of regime change in Venezuela and its influence on exports and access to financial markets. “I think people might call that ‘imperial’ in that broader definition of exerting undue influence in some way,” says Kronick.

    15:40: Comparing the UK and U.S. as global superpowers. 

    20:00: Discussion about how “implicated citizens” are simply by being part of an empire.

    25:25: A look at the role of imperial powers to help address problems they may have created.

    27:00: An examination of the lingering effects of colonial imperialism. “All of this is part of the long-term knock-on effect of empires, and you can’t separate anything that's going on now in parts of the former imperial world from develops that the British are, at least in large part, responsible for ... and that’s true of the Americans as well in a whole lot of ways,” says Chase-Levinson.

    27:16: “Quote Break”

    33:56: Kronick and Chase-Levinson speculate what modern “new frontiers” could loom on the horizon.

    36:00: Levinson and Kronick talk about the “precarious stature of democracy” in the world today. 

    View Transcript

    Follow the “Understand This ...” podcast on Apple Music.

    Credits

  • Writers

    Brandon K. Baker

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  • Political Science
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  • International Relations
  • Understand This...
    • From ‘Indiana Jones’ to medieval robots
    Professor Elly Truitt standing on Penn's campus

    In her work and her teaching, historian of science Elly Truitt challenges assumptions. “The people who lived in the Middle Ages were definitely no less intelligent than we are, and they didn’t think they were living in the middle of anything,” she says. 

    From ‘Indiana Jones’ to medieval robots

    Historian of science Elly Truitt’s multidisciplinary investigations of the Middle Ages challenge assumptions about the period as a dark time in innovation and prompt a rethink of notions of ‘modern’ science.

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    ‘Haunted countries deserve haunted stories.’ How America’s history of racial housing discrimination inspired Amazon’s new horror series THEM

    ‘Haunted countries deserve haunted stories.’ How America’s history of racial housing discrimination inspired Amazon’s new horror series THEM

    Camille Z. Charles of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about how discriminatory housing practices like redlining shaped U.S. neighborhoods in the 20th century. “If you take the redlining maps that were used before the passage of fair housing legislation and overlay them on present-day maps of pretty much any major city in the U.S., and certainly any city that has any meaningful Black population, they look really similar in the sense that Blacks are still largely shut out of those neighborhoods that they were legally shut out of during that time period,” she said.

    Penn junior Chinaza Ruth Okonkwo named a Beinecke Scholar
    student standing on marble steps

    Junior Chinaza Ruth Okonkwo has been awarded a 2021 Beinecke Scholarship to pursue a graduate education in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. A philosophy and history major, Okonkwo is one of only 16 Beinecke Scholars chosen this year from throughout the United States.

    Penn junior Chinaza Ruth Okonkwo named a Beinecke Scholar

    Junior Chinaza Ruth Okonkwo has been awarded a 2021 Beinecke Scholarship to pursue a graduate education in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. She is one of only 16 Beinecke Scholars chosen this year.

    Louisa Shepard

    The ‘dreams and nightmares’ of immigration
    A map with a red line tracing a route from Guatemala to Philadelphia

    Liliana Velásquez left Guatemala alone, at 14 years old. She was one of over 326,000 unaccompanied minors apprehended by immigration authorities between 2013 and 2019. 

    The ‘dreams and nightmares’ of immigration

    Author Liliana Velásquez and journalist Juan González narrated personal and collective histories of Latin American migration to the U.S. in a School of Social Policy & Practice event.

    Kristina Linnea García