3/21
Louisa Shepard
Senior News Officer
lshepard@upenn.edu
The medieval English epic poem “Beowulf” is brought to life in a musical performance by Benjamin Bagby and academic discussion through a partnership among the Penn Live Arts, the Libraries, and the School of Arts & Sciences.
College fourth-year Wes Matthews is combining writing, music, research, and service during his Penn experience. A former Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, the anthropology major and religious studies minor works at the Kelly Writers House and is a Wolf Humanities Center fellow.
Modern and Contemporary Poetry was founded by Al Filreis of the School of Arts & Sciences at Kelly Writers House in 2012, and now has 69,000 people enrolled globally. Poets and participants came to campus to celebrate the 10th anniversary.
In his new book “The Future of Decline: Anglo-American Culture at its Limits,” English Professor Jed Esty offers alternatives to America’s “language of greatness,” taking lessons from the experience of Britain during the past century.
Artist-in-residence Katie Baldwin is printing a book she wrote and illustrated, inspired by a 400-plus-year-old volume in the Penn Libraries collection, sponsored by a residency with the Philadelphia Center for the Book.
Sigal Ben-Porath of the Graduate School of Education says book bans and challenges affect free speech and expression, especially for young people, and that institutions of higher education are important for developing tools based on evidence for assessment.
In her first book, Whitney Trettien of the School of Arts & Sciences experiments with printed and digital assets while examining bookwork from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Episodes 4 and 5 of the OMNIA podcast’s fourth season cover how to confront trauma, using words as a coping mechanism, and music and meaning.
In her latest book, Joan DeJean of the School of Arts & Sciences investigates the lives of female prisoners deported in 1719 from Paris to the French colony of Louisiana.
The Wolf Undergraduate Humanities forum takes on the topic of migration, with individual research projects ranging from slavery debates within the Jewish Orthodox community to Southeast Asian refugee youth.
Louisa Shepard
Senior News Officer
lshepard@upenn.edu
“Elderflora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees,” a new book by Jared Farmer of the School of Arts & Sciences, is reviewed.
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Martin Seligman of the School of Arts & Sciences discusses his new co-authored book, “TOMORROWMIND,” which shows how people can meet future challenges while thriving in the workplace.
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A profile examines the architectural novel “Learning from Las Vegas” co-written by Denise Scott Brown, formerly of the Weitzman School of Design.
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Dean Erika James of the Wharton School shares her most memorable reading list from 2022.
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A profile examines the poetic accolades of College of Arts and Sciences fourth-year Wes Matthews and his mother Airea D. Matthews, including their involvement with Kelly Writers House.
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Sigal Ben-Porath of the Graduate School of Education says that the vehemence of discourse on transgender issues makes sense given the hate speech and misapprehensions previously faced by trans people.
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