Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

How can hospitals address scarce resources during COVID-19?

Most hospitals have general contingency plans for resource allocation in times of medical scarcity, but not detailed guidelines for the process of actually making those allocation decisions. School of Arts and Sciences political scientist and LDI Senior Fellow Julia Lynch has created those guidelines.

Hoag Levins

Rethinking microeconomics

Economics professor Rakesh Vohra has spent the last five years reimagining the design of the intermediate microeconomics course, resulting in a new book and a new course structure. The approach is unique, and this academic year every full-time student taking intermediate microeconomics is taking Vohra’s innovative version.

Kristen de Groot

Walter Licht’s legacy of civic engagement

For more than 40 years at Penn, Walter Licht has crafted a career of equal parts renowned historian, teacher, and community activist, including creating the Penn Civic Scholars Program. Licht recently announced he is stepping down from his positions at Civic House.

Kristen de Groot

Human rights during the coronavirus pandemic

During a virtual event at Perry World House, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, former United Nations high commissioner for human rights, spoke to PWH interim director Michael Horowitz about the importance of centering human rights and about holding governments accountable in a time of pandemic.

Kristen de Groot

Penn junior Misha McDaniel named a Beinecke Scholar

English major Misha McDaniel has been awarded a 2020 Beinecke Scholarship to pursue graduate education. McDaniel is one of 18 Beinecke Scholars chosen from throughout the U.S., and the 13th recipient from Penn since the award was first given in 1975.

Louisa Shepard , Aaron Olson



In the News


U.S. News & World Report

Has RSV vaccine hesitancy subsided?

A survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center finds that more Americans believe in the effectiveness of vaccines developed to protect newborns and seniors against RSV.

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The New York Times

Europe has a leadership vacuum. How will it handle Trump?

Amy Gutmann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that Germany is front and center in the economic problems currently afflicting Europe.

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Los Angeles Times

Trump offers murky worldview ahead of second term, mixing dire warnings with rosy promises

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center says that Donald Trump is far more hyperbolic on average than traditional presidential candidates, who still routinely claim that they will do something alone that can’t be done without Congress.

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The Hill

Trust in court system at record low: Gallup

An October survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that the public’s trust in the U.S. Supreme Court has dropped to a record low.

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The New York Times

An epidemic of vicious school brawls, fueled by student cellphones

PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton says that many schools don’t have a playbook for addressing student violence or helping pupils engage more positively online, in part because few researchers are studying the issue.

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