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Languages
Experiencing the pandemic from abroad
Experiencing the pandemic from abroad
When rising junior Julia Mitchell learned in March that France was about to shut down, she decided to immerse herself further in the language rather than come home, quarantining with her homestay family and finishing courses remotely.
The unique subculture of Cuban punk
The unique subculture of Cuban punk
Often idealized through images of painstakingly restored Chryslers and romantic, backroom rumbas, Cuba has untold subcultures that one graduate student, Carmen Torre Pérez, is analyzing through a social history of Cuban punk.
A unique fellowship for Middle Eastern languages
A unique fellowship for Middle Eastern languages
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Foreign Language and Area Studies Program (FLAS) offers undergraduate and graduate-level academic year and summer fellowships to Penn students studying Middle Eastern languages.
First Ivy League Quechua Fulbright scholar elevates Indigenous values
First Ivy League Quechua Fulbright scholar elevates Indigenous values
Nico Suárez-Guerrero of the School of Arts and Sciences is the first Quechua Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant in the Ivy League, and the only one currently in the United States.
Restoring Indigenous knowledge systems and languages
Restoring Indigenous knowledge systems and languages
Penn’s Educational Partnerships with Indigenous Communities builds alliances with Native Americans.
Weeklong focus on indigenous languages
Weeklong focus on indigenous languages
As part of the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages, campus groups have organized the Indigenous Languages Week Celebration, supported by a grant from the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation Foundation.
Libraries launch Diversity in the Stacks initiative
Libraries launch Diversity in the Stacks initiative
The Libraries has launched a new initiative to enhance collections that represent and reflect the University’s diverse population, and to highlight those works in a series of blog posts, starting with Afrofuturism.
Classical studies professor Emily Wilson receives MacArthur ‘genius grant’
Classical studies professor Emily Wilson receives MacArthur ‘genius grant’
Professor of Classical Studies Emily Wilson has been named a 2019 MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, receiving what is known as the “genius grant.”
How Penn is advancing language learning inside—and out of—the classroom
How Penn is advancing language learning inside—and out of—the classroom
This summer, the Center for East Asian Studies and the Department of East Asian Language and Civilizations welcomed 15 teachers from around the country to learn the latest in critical language teaching.
Connecting with a Deaf community on the other side of the world
Connecting with a Deaf community on the other side of the world
On a trip abroad to Italy that capped off the Penn Global Seminar taught by linguist Jami Fisher, students got a firsthand look at the diversity and variety of global deaf culture.
In the News
The Wall Street Journal
‘Everyday Utopia’ review: The road to nowhere
“Everyday Utopia” by Kristen Ghodsee of the School of Arts & Sciences is reviewed.
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Psychology Today
Correcting non-native speakers may hinder their learning
In a co-authored Op-Ed, Benjamin Franklin Scholar Sangitha Aiyer writes that well-intentioned grammatical corrections can induce unintended negative effects on non-native English speakers.
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WBUR Radio (Boston)
What makes the world’s first bar joke funny? No one knows
Phillip Jones of the Penn Museum explains the history behind a Penn Museum collection of Sumerian tablets, including the world’s first documented bar joke.
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The Washington Post
Family is ‘my chittis’: Kamala Harris puts her Tamil roots on the prime-time stage like never before
Vasu Renganathan of the School of Arts & Sciences commented on Kamala Harris’ use of the Tamil language on the campaign trail.
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The New York Times
Peru’s queen of Quechua rap fuses the transgressive and traditional
Américo Mendoza-Mori of the School of Arts & Sciences translated the lyrics of a song by Renata Flores, a Peruvian musician who writes in Quechua.
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Vice
Renata Flores brought Quechua to YouTube, and then everything changed
Américo Mendoza-Mori of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about the need to bring the Quechua language into contemporary art forms. “The stereotype where indigenous people are seen as timeless or pure must be challenged. When native people are put in that box, we are fossilizing them,” he said.
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