News from

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Reset All Filters
1694 Results
A chance to imagine memorials of tomorrow
rocky steps in philadelphia

A chance to imagine memorials of tomorrow

A history course taught by Jared Farmer looks at Philadelphia’s monuments past and present, and lets students envision what future memorials may be.

Kristen de Groot

Why are alcohol- and drug-related deaths rising in the U.S. and not elsewhere?
Silhouette of a person sitting against a wall on the side of the image, legs pulled up close to her chest.

Why are alcohol- and drug-related deaths rising in the U.S. and not elsewhere?

With insights from anthropology and neuroscience, Penn researchers Michael Platt and Peter Sterling find that, in comparison, 16 other wealthy nations offer communal assistance at every life stage, support that protects individuals and families long term.

Michele W. Berger

The ‘music’ of one poet’s words, translated
Huda Fakhreddine holding the poetry book outside

(Homepage image) As a scholar, Fakhreddine works hard to retain as much of a poem as possible when it moves from Arabic to another language. “It’s a challenge that all translation involves. We talk about what’s lost and what’s gained,” she says. “It’s all exaggerated here with these short musical pieces. Their meaning is ground in their sound.”

The ‘music’ of one poet’s words, translated

With help from her daughter, scholar Huda Fakhreddine published an English version of 30 poems for children written by her father in Arabic, paying tribute to their endearing and enduring subject matter and to the musicality and richness of their sound.

Michele W. Berger

Anti-racism and reproductive justice
Alexis McGill Johnson and Dorothy Roberts

Alexis McGill Johnson (left) and Dorothy Roberts spoke at the 21st Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture in Social Justice, centered on reproductive rights and anti-racism.

Anti-racism and reproductive justice

PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts joined Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, in the 21st annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture in Social Justice. They addressed the intersectional nature of anti-racism and reproductive freedom.

Kristina García

From the archives, a class on different communities of Jews in China
students looking at manuscripts in a penn libraries course

Homepage image: Students brought their own expertise to the experience of working with the archival materials, including translation of Chinese characters written on the back of photographs. Working together (center) were College freshmen (from left) Louis Dong, Nancy (Ziqi) An, and Alice (Yucheng) Feng.

From the archives, a class on different communities of Jews in China

Kathryn Hellerstein created an opportunity for her first-year seminar students to study archival material from a collection donated to the Penn Libraries by her mentor, Israeli scholar Irene Eber.
Fighting food insecurity
Four women in front of the Share food bank, and the two in the middle are waving to each other

Laura Guerrero Peña (second from left), a senior studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Queens, New York, worked at Share Food Program over the fall semester.

Fighting food insecurity

Students from the Fox Leadership Program have lent their time and expertise to hunger organizations for more than a decade, and during the pandemic they’ve upped their involvement to meet the growing need.

Kristen de Groot

On the Galápagos, an underwater exploration of marine life
sea lion with divers

Homepage image: The diving project is part of a larger initiative called Projecto Laboratorio para Apreciar la Vida y el Ambiente or Project LAVA, which also includes research about the effect humans are having on sea lions in the Galápagos.

On the Galápagos, an underwater exploration of marine life

In collaboration with a local dive instructor and the students he trained, researchers from Penn and Villanova are learning how human presence affects life on the seafloor around these islands.

Michele W. Berger

Hospitalizations for eating disorder increased during pandemic
A mostly eaten apple in front of a mirror showing a whole, uneaten apple.

Hospitalizations for eating disorder increased during pandemic

Researchers can’t yet pinpoint definitive reasons, though they surmise it was a combination of factors, including stress, an outsized focus on weight gain and personal appearance, and maybe even symptoms of COVID-19 itself.

Michele W. Berger