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Dorothy Roberts on the future of abortion advocacy
A crowd of people gathered, one holds a sign that reads ABORTION IS ESSENTIAL.

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  • Q&A

    • Dorothy Roberts on the future of abortion advocacy

    Dorothy Roberts speaks with Penn Today on the implications of the Dobbs decision, which struck down Roe v. Wade, leaving many states with no legal right to abortion.

    Kristina García

    Overturning Roe disproportionately burdens marginalized groups
    A person tearing up in a crowd of people. The person, who is holding a green bandana, wears a shirt that says "We Won't Back Down." Other people hold up signs in the crowd, including "Keep Abortion Legal."

    Abortion-rights activists demonstrate in Washington, D.C. on June 30, 2022. (Image: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

    Overturning Roe disproportionately burdens marginalized groups

    For low-income people and people of color, lack of access to safe abortions in the U.S. will have a range of health and financial ramifications, compounding factors like poverty and systemic racism.

    Michele W. Berger

    How historical racism influences modern poverty and racial inequality
    Regina Baker.

    Penn sociologist Regina Baker.

    How historical racism influences modern poverty and racial inequality

    Sociologist Regina Baker finds that Black people in southern U.S. states with significant institutionalized historical racial practices experience worse poverty today. These states also have a wider poverty gap between Black and white populations.

    Michele W. Berger

    Following the trail of Elizabeth Thomas, fossil hunter
    Person standing in a large green field.

    (Homepage photo) Locals advised Sabel and Pentecost-Farren (seen here) to look in this field between Hampnett and Northleach, where the pair found several fossilized sea urchins.

    Following the trail of Elizabeth Thomas, fossil hunter

    Claire Conklin Sabel, a doctoral student in Penn’s History and Sociology of Science department, uncovers the findings of 18th-century amateur naturalist Elizabeth Thomas, along with illustrator Alix Pentecost-Farren, who brings Thomas’ work to life.

    Kristina García

    Cosmic Writers brings free creative writing education to school-aged children 
    Manoj Simha and Rowana Miller standing on stairway

    May graduates Rowana Miller (right) and Manoj Simha lead Cosmic Writers, a project supported by President’s Engagement Prize that provides free creative writing instruction to K-12 students virtually throughout the world, taught by college students. The new nonprofit is expanding to offer in-person workshops in Philadelphia and several other U.S. cities.

    Cosmic Writers brings free creative writing education to school-aged children 

    May graduates Rowana Miller and Manoj Simha lead Cosmic Writers, a project supported by President’s Engagement Prize that provides free creative writing instruction to K-12 students virtually throughout the world.
    Both nature and nurture contribute to signatures of socioeconomic status in the brain
    Neuroscience

    Both nature and nurture contribute to signatures of socioeconomic status in the brain

    Gideon Nave of the Wharton School and Martha Farah of the School of Arts & Sciences are quoted on their work that found evidence that both genetics and environmental influences contribute to the impact of socioeconomic status in a complex interplay with effects that span a variety of brain regions.

    COVID mortality age patterns changed significantly during pandemic
    An empty hospital bed in a hospital room.

    COVID mortality age patterns changed significantly during pandemic

    Between March 2020 and October 2021, death rates from the virus decreased for those 80 and older and increased for those 25 to 54, results that held across racial and ethnic groups.

    Michele W. Berger

    35th annual Women of Color at Penn award
    Side-by-side portraits of two smiling women

    Shaquilla Harrigan (left) and Nicole Harrington (right) were the graduate and undergraduate honorees of this year’s Women of Color awards. 

    35th annual Women of Color at Penn award

    The Women of Color at Penn held their 35th annual award ceremony with a virtual celebration hosted by the African American Resource Center. This year’s awards honored six women who have fostered and supported community.

    Kristina García

    The pandemic’s psychological scars
    swirly painting of faces and heads

    (Homepage image) “What we needed to do for our physical health—quarantining, staying away from other people and social situations—even when that kind of avoidance is the right thing to do, it makes people more anxious,” says Elizabeth Turk-Karan of the Center for the Study and Treatment of Anxiety. What remains to be seen is how these emotions and many others will play out as the pandemic recedes.

    The pandemic’s psychological scars

    It’s been a long and uncertain road, with some groups shouldering a disproportionately greater burden of mental anguish from COVID-19. Yet now there’s a glimmer of hope. Has the page finally turned?

    Michele W. Berger

    Hostility among friends can come from surprising places
    Two friends walking outside with backpacks and books.

    Hostility among friends can come from surprising places

    Sherelle Ferguson, and Annette Lareau, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor in the Social Sciences, find that “hostile ignorance” can come from surprising places.

    From Omnia