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The enduring significance of ‘The Odyssey’
Illustration depicting Homer’s “The Odyssey”

Image: Vanessa Lovegrove, Penn Arts & Sciences

The enduring significance of ‘The Odyssey’

In July, a new adaptation of the famous poem hits the big screen. Three Arts & Sciences faculty members discuss Homer’s epic.

From Omnia

2 min. read

The concept, popularity, and dismissal of the ‘beach read’
Beach reads display table at bookstore.

Cheryl Krementz of Penn Business Services—which oversees the Penn Bookstore—says that a beach read “leans toward the ‘lighter’ genre: romantasy, light science fiction, memoir and cozy mysteries, true crime.” She describes the bookstore’s selection as “very Penn beach reads,” as they are “fun and breezy with a little bit of intellect in it.”

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The concept, popularity, and dismissal of the ‘beach read’

Penn Today talked about beach reads with comparative literature Ph.D. candidate Angelina Eimannsberger, whose dissertation focuses on women readers, social media, the romance genre, and bookstores.

3 min. read

New faculty explore how individual minds influence group behavior
Three photos of Marlyse Baptista, Nacho Sanguinetti, and Fritz Breithaupt.

Linguist Marlyse Baptista, neuroscientist Nacho Sanguinetti, and humanities scholar Fritz Breithaupt were all hired through MindCORE under the theme of “interconnected minds,” focusing on how individual minds influence group behavior and vice versa.

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New faculty explore how individual minds influence group behavior

Linguist Marlyse Baptista, neuroscientist Nacho Sanguinetti, and humanities scholar Fritz Breithaupt are part of MindCORE’s Interconnected Minds cluster hire.

3 min. read

The art of retelling ancient stories: A Q&A with Steven Weitzman
Steven Weitzman standing upright and smiling, facing forward, in the Library at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, next to a wall with books on display

Steven Weitzman is the Ella Darivoff Director of the Katz Center of Advanced Judaic Studies.

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  • Q&A

    • The art of retelling ancient stories: A Q&A with Steven Weitzman

    In his new book, the Penn professor and scholar of religion examines how the biblical story of the 10 plagues has been reshaped by people across time and culture to make sense of their experiences and find meaning in disasters.

    3 min. read

    Who, What, Why: Alicia Meyer on the wonders of the Kislak Center
    Alicia Meyer talks to students in Technology and Society course.

    In February 2025, Alicia Meyer showed students in Elly Truitt’s Technology & Society course a rare 19th-century book of hours woven from silk on a Jacquard loom, an Egyptian clay tablet from 400 BCE, an astronomical rotula used to predict the movement of heavenly bodies, posters from Central America made on sugarcane paper, and more.

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  • Who, What, Why

    • Who, What, Why: Alicia Meyer on the wonders of the Kislak Center

    As curator of research services, Meyer wants students from every discipline to visit the Kislak Center and to find new insights from old materials.

    2 min. read

    The enduring legacy of Rumi

    The enduring legacy of Rumi

    In a new book, Jamal J. Elias, Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities and professor of Islamic history and visual culture in the School of Arts & Sciences, explores the poet’s impact.

    From Omnia

    Studying Shakespeare through the lens of love
    A professor standing at the head of a table talking to students.

    In honor of Valentine's Day, and as a way of fostering community in her Shakespeare in Love course, Becky Friedman took her students to the University Club for lunch one class period. They talked about the movie "Shakespeare in Love," as part of a broader conversation on how Shakespeare's works are adapted.

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    Studying Shakespeare through the lens of love

    In Becky Friedman’s English course Shakespeare in Love, undergraduate students analyze language, genre, and adaptation in the Bard’s plays through the lens of love.

    3 min. read

    Exploring ‘One Thousand and One Nights’
    Students and faculty look at rare books in the Lea Library.

    Dr. Paul Cobb, center, looks on as students and library staff examine rare versions of “One Thousand and One Nights” in the Lea Library.

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    Exploring ‘One Thousand and One Nights’

    A seminar from Middle Eastern medievalist Paul Cobb gets students talking and thinking about the “disorienting” storytelling in “One Thousand and One Nights.”
    Literature and medicine
    Dag Woubeshet (right) speaks with student in a classroom who is giving the thumbs up.

    Dagmawi Woubshet (right), Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Associate Professor of English, says “we try to teach our students how to think critically and historically, but also with fidelity to the art object.”

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    Literature and medicine

    The Penn Arts & Sciences course Literature and Medicine begins with Apollo and the Hippocratic Oath and extends through the 21st century with poetry, novels, videography, historical texts, and guest lecturers from the Perelman School of Medicine and beyond.

    Kristina Linnea García

    2 min. read