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One hour, one painting: A Barnes visit reveals clues about how the brain processes visual cues
A group of people, some sitting on a bench, some standing, looking at something offscreen, with paintings on yellow walls in the background.

Penn neuroscientist Zab Johnson (standing, second from right) led an exercise during which the mindCORE students studied a single painting for an hour. The idea, she explains, is to “slow down and really take a good look.”

One hour, one painting: A Barnes visit reveals clues about how the brain processes visual cues

The exercise is one part of a two-week mindCORE summer workshop aimed at underrepresented undergrads across the country. This year’s program focused on language science and technology, and minds in the world.

Michele W. Berger

How to think about African-American English
The Economist

How to think about African-American English

Taylor Jones, a grad student in the School of Arts and Sciences, led a study that found court reporters were only able to accurately transcribe 60% of sentences spoken in the African-American English dialect, regardless of the transcriptionists’ race or experience level.

Shooting for the moon
Schuler in the classroom

Linguistics professor Kathryn Schuler (right) wanted her students to think big. Throughout the semester, they worked on passion projects, following a Google X model to allow for unconstrained ideas to solve grand problems.

Shooting for the moon

In her Language and the Brain course, linguistics professor Kathryn Schuler asked 30 undergrads to think big about big problems—and their solutions didn’t disappoint.

Michele W. Berger

A shared past for East Africa’s hunter-gatherers
A few people stand in front of a building talking to a larger group of gathered people listening.

With the help of a local translator, Simon Thompson (in blue plaid shirt) from Sarah Tishkoff’s lab and Dawit Wolde-Meskel (in yellow shirt), a collaborator from Addis Ababa University, explain the research project on African population genetics to the Argobba population, Ethiopia. After the project is presented, the researchers answer any questions. (Credit: Tishkoff lab)

A shared past for East Africa’s hunter-gatherers

PIK Professor Sarah Tishkoff, Laura Scheinfeldt, and Sameer Soi use data from 50 populations to study African genetic diversity. Their analysis suggests that geographically far-flung hunter-gatherer groups share a common ancestry.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Philly accent: There’s a lot youse don’t know about it. Just ask these experts.
Philadelphia Inquirer

Philly accent: There’s a lot youse don’t know about it. Just ask these experts.

William Labov is best known for his decades of studying language patterns in Philadelphia, but the local accent is anything but fixed in time. Josef Fruehwald of the School of Arts and Sciences commented on the Philadelphia region’s shifting accent, alongside colleagues Meredith Tamminga and Jami Fisher.

Speaking black dialect in courtrooms can have striking consequences
The New York Times

Speaking black dialect in courtrooms can have striking consequences

Taylor Jones, a doctoral student in the School of Arts and Sciences, co-authored a new study that found courtroom stenographers made regular errors when transcribing sentences spoken in African-American Vernacular English.

Celebrating science
a stack of books in front of a chalkboard with math equations

Celebrating science

Eight Penn faculty share their favorite general interest books about science.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Social scientists trade academic silos for shared work space
Coren Apicella and Corey Cusimano standing to the side as Geoff Goodwin speaks at a podium.

Penn psychologists Coren Apicella and Geoffrey Goodwin (at podium) co-direct the new Social and Behavioral Sciences Initiative, part of mindCORE. Corey Cusimano (center), a grad student in Goodwin’s lab, will also participate. Cusimano studies the ways in which people hold others responsible for their attitudes. (Photo: Yevgeniy Olkhov)

Social scientists trade academic silos for shared work space

Faculty and grad students in the new Social and Behavioral Sciences Initiative have access to two state-of-the-art labs, grants, and a collaborative environment aimed at creating a vibrant research community.

Michele W. Berger

Widening the lens on language study
illustration of speech

Widening the lens on language study

Penn Arts and Sciences faculty use language to unravel mysteries of culture, cognition, and communication.

Nixon had ‘Deep Throat,’ Trump has ‘Lodestar’: An archaic word becomes a resistance hashtag
The Washington Post

Nixon had ‘Deep Throat,’ Trump has ‘Lodestar’: An archaic word becomes a resistance hashtag

Mark Liberman of the School of Arts and Sciences provided a linguistic history of the word ‘lodestar.’ “Going back to the 14th or 15th century, there’s a metaphoric use referring to not the pole star but to any principle or person or idea or goal used for guidance,” said Liberman.