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Sociology
Understanding and addressing barriers to COVID vaccine acceptance
Different communities have different reasons for wanting to wait on this shot. Getting to the heart of those concerns can help meet people where they are.
Toward a better understanding of ‘fake news’
PIK Professor Duncan Watts publishes a framework for developing a comprehensive research agenda to study the origins, nature, and consequences of misinformation on democracy.
Mothers bear the cost of the pandemic shift to remote work
The pandemic exposed and reinforced gender-biased household divisions of labor, according to a new study by Penn sociologists.
Alice Paul’s mysterious manuscript
Heather J. Sharkey and three students transcribed a hand-written manuscript of the doctoral dissertation by Alice Paul, who earned her Ph.D. from Penn in 1912. As part of a virtual symposium, they joined John Pollack of the Libraries to discuss their efforts.
COVID-19 and women in the workforce
Experts across Penn explain how the pandemic has exacerbated gender inequality and challenged female career advancement in the STEMM fields, education, and business.
Young and middle-age adults in the U.S. dying at higher rates
According to a new National Academies report, cardiometabolic conditions now join drug overdoses, alcohol, and suicide as significant mortality causes. In a Q&A, demographer Irma Elo explains.
Eviction linked to depression risk in young adults
Research from sociologist Courtney Boen and anthropologist Morgan Hoke shows that this issue, compounded by the toll of the pandemic, disproportionately affects low-income households and communities of color.
Logistics of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout
Penn experts demystify the process of shipping a vaccine and, ultimately, getting it into arms.
Benjamin Shestakofsky finds interconnections between humans and machines
Drawing on field research, the assistant professor of sociology ,examines the specific real-world conditions under which software systems replace, complement, or create human labor.
Exacerbating the health care divide
With rates of diagnoses and death disproportionately affecting racial minorities and low-income workers, experts from the School of Arts & Sciences address how COVID-19 has further exposed already dire health outcome inequalities.
In the News
Engaging discussion at Center in the Park on conservative agenda Project 2025
At a Philadelphia panel on Project 2025, PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts said that Black women would have even greater numbers of unwanted pregnancies without access to legal contraceptives.
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MacArthur Foundation announces 2024 ‘genius’ grant winners
PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts has been named a MacArthur Fellow for her work on racial inequities in health and social-service systems.
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Penn law professor Dorothy E. Roberts named a MacArthur Fellow
PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts has received the “genius grant” for her efforts to expose racism embedded in social-support programs, such as the child welfare system.
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The bad politics of bad posture
In her book “Slouch,” Beth Linker of the School of Arts & Sciences outlines how societal pressures have driven huge swaths of people to embrace falsehoods about posture.
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The ACT’s new ties to a private equity firm are raising eyebrows
Benjamin Shestakofsky of the School of Arts & Sciences says it is not surprising that private equity firms are setting their sights on the standardized testing market.
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HHS considering changes to sterilization consent process
PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts says there’s widespread devaluing of certain people’s childbearing from negative stereotypes to laws that deny someone extra benefits if they get pregnant while on welfare.
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