Skip to Content Skip to Content

Sociology

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 Linnea 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.

Louisa Shepard

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

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 Linnea 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

Improving college access for Philadelphia’s Latinx community
Emilio Parrado in a classroom gesturing as he speaks to the class. Two people are blurred behind in the background. The 22 students in Emilio Parrado’s Academically Based Community Service course on Latinx in the United States will mentor high schoolers who are part of the Centro de Cultura Arte Trabajo y Educación (CCATE) college-readiness program. Here Parrado describes the next steps to the class, with CCATE’s Holly Link and Obed Arango in the background.

Improving college access for Philadelphia’s Latinx community

A collaboration between Penn and the nonprofit Centro de Cultura Arte Trabajo y Educación aims to enhance a thriving post-secondary success program, create mentoring opportunities, and more.

Michele W. Berger