Sociology

One year post-Dobbs, what’s actually happened?

Four takeaways from Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences researchers in the aftermath of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion.

Michele W. Berger

The ‘true value of women’s work’

The Wages for Housework movement is a precursor to the Child Tax Credit and guaranteed income, says sociologist Pilar Gonalons-Pons. A community center in Germantown houses their 50-year archive and carries on the work.

Kristina García

Seeing disability differently

Scholars are trying to understand—and change—how the world works for people with disabilities.

Susan Ahlborn

Ancient medicine in today’s world

Taylor Dysart, a doctoral candidate in the School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of History and Sociology of Science, probes modern science’s enthrallment with the powerful Amazonian intoxicant ayahuasca.

From OMNIA

Understanding the decline in racial disparities in COVID

The School of Arts & Sciences’ Irma Elo and Samuel Preston, with a collaborative team of researchers, assessed racial disparities in U.S. COVID-19 deaths, calling for continued efforts to better understand and implement targeted strategies for addressing health inequalities.

Nathi Magubane

Remembering Harry Belafonte

Tukufu Zuberi describes meeting the musician-turned-activist, plus how Belafonte used his talents for good and what legacy he leaves behind.

Michele W. Berger



In the News


Associated Press

In death, three decades after his trial verdict, O.J. Simpson still reflects America’s racial divides

Camille Charles of the School of Arts & Sciences says that Black Americans have grown less likely to believe in a famous defendant’s innocence as a show of race solidarity.

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The Wall Street Journal

‘Slouch’ review: The panic over posture

In her new book, “Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America,” Beth Linker of the School of Arts & Sciences traces society’s posture obsession to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

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The New Yorker

The truth behind the slouching epidemic

Beth Linker of the School of Arts & Sciences traces the history of a poor-posture epidemic in the U.S. which began at the onset of the 20th century.

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Boston Globe

How two Mass. lawyers are helping DACA recipients stay in the US

Carlos Águilar González of the School of Arts & Sciences says that streamlining the D3 authorization process for DACA recipients may limit the number of people who can benefit by focusing only on the most prestigious and educated.

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Inside Higher Ed

The activist academy

In her book “Chasing the Intact Mind,” Amy S.F. Lutz of the School of Arts & Sciences argues that the current approach to disabilities studies marginalizes the most severely disabled.

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The Washington Post

Ready or not, self-driving semi-trucks are coming to America’s highways

Steve Viscelli of the School of Arts & Sciences says that autonomous trucking could change the geography of the U.S. economy in the way that railroads and shipping did.

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