Penn Museum | Penn Today

Professor stands on one side of a table filled with Native American objects while talking to seven other people across from and beside her i

Naskapi connections: Restorative research in the Penn Museum collection

A blog post about a child’s hunting jacket made of caribou hide caught the attention of a high school students in the Naskapi Nation in Quebec. A group visited the Penn Museum to view artifacts made by their ancestors.

Five events to watch for in March

On the calendar for March: an orchestral performance at Penn Museum, the annual Silfen Forum, and a conversation about Philadelphia as a science capital.

Refugee docents help bring a museum’s global collection to life

Ellen Owens, Julian Siggers, and Kevin Schott of the Museum were interviewed about the Global Guides program, which hires refugees and immigrants to work as docents. “We really wanted to have the narratives of lots of different people, to bring the authentic voices of people that live in other places into the galleries of the museum,” said Owens.

Two men stand in front of the brick and stone stairway leading to the Penn Museum

The inaugural Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement fellowship cohort

The Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement fellowship supports scholarship and civic engagement in West Philadelphia. Paul Wolff Mitchell, an anthropology doctoral student, and Michael Vazquez, a philosophy doctoral student, are the inaugural cohort.

The Crossing choir gathered with composer in center

Five events to watch for February

Happenings on campus and beyond to look for this February, ranging from “Galentine's Day” to the beginning of “#Glassfest.”

Return of the Rat: Chinese lunar new year honors the trickster

Haibin Wechsler of the Museum spoke about 2020 being the Year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac calendar. “A lot of famous writers are rats,” Wechsler said. “Shakespeare is a rat. Truman Capote is a rat. Charlotte Bronte is also a rat.”

Trump’s threat to strike Iranian cultural sites puts him in league with ISIS, Taliban

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein of Perry World House and Brian Daniels of the Penn Museum spoke about the administration’s threat to strike Iranian cultural sites. “Just the threat is quite amazing, coming from the president of the United States,” said Zeid.

A threat to Iran’s rich cultural heritage

Brian Daniels and Richard Leventhal of the Museum were among the signers of a letter about the administration’s threats of retaliation against Iran by striking cultural sites. “If carried out, this threat would constitute a war crime under international instruments such as the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which the United States has joined,” they and others wrote.

Man in a suit pointing to a glass box containing artifacts

Contemporary art enhances Penn Museum’s Africa Galleries

New installations showcase the diversity and artistry of modern culture in dialogue with historic artifacts.

group of students working on laptops around a table

An Inca ceremonial center, recreated in a digital landscape

Students use computer graphic technologies to bring historic sites to life as part of a summer research program and fall semester course that unites anthropology and computer science.

Filters