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Connecting with a Deaf community on the other side of the world
A group of people standing in front of a white statue in Rome, Italy.

A Penn Global Seminar on global deaf culture led by Penn linguist Jami Fisher (5th from left) included visiting sites in Rome, Italy, like Bernini’s Fontana dei Quatro Fiumi in Piazza Navona, above. Often, the group was led by a guide who was signing in Italian sign language. It gave the students a chance to experience what life is like not only for deaf people in general, but also a deaf community in another part of the world. (Photo courtesy: Jami Fisher)

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.

Michele W. Berger

You can’t hurt a poem, and other lessons from Charles Bernstein
One image of Charles Bernstein presently and another of Charles Bernstein from the 1970s

Now and then: Charles Bernstein, Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature (Photo: Omnia Magazine)

You can’t hurt a poem, and other lessons from Charles Bernstein

The award-winning poet writer of libretti, translator, and archivist looks back on his career.

Penn Today Staff

Kurdish is the newest class on the global language roster
Three people sitting at a small, round table outside, with greenery in the background.

For the first time, students at Penn had the chance to learn Kurdish, through a class offered by the Annenberg School for Communication and taught by doctoral student Mohammed Salih (center), a native speaker.

Kurdish is the newest class on the global language roster

A course taught by Annenberg doctoral student Mohammed Salih offered, for the first time at Penn, entrée into the basics of a language spoken by 30 million people worldwide.

Michele W. Berger

Embracing a community’s practice to promote the measles vaccine
A girl in a blue fleece standing in front of a wall of black and white posters in Hebrew. Boxes of children's toys are in front of the wall.

Naomi Shapiro, a senior in Penn Nursing, in front of a wall of pashkevilim. These posters often contain language that can seem harsh or extreme to someone not accustomed to their tone. But within the community, they are well-received and taken seriously.

Embracing a community’s practice to promote the measles vaccine

Mimicking a news-sharing custom common among ultraorthodox Jewish communities, two Penn Nursing students created and placed posters around a Jerusalem neighborhood, employing a mystical technique that assigns a numerical value to each Hebrew letter.