Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

A group of three rows of people wearing nametags poses for a photo.

Confronting inequities, sharing solutions

At the annual meeting of the Global Water Alliance, faculty, students, and practitioners shared solutions and challenges around the issues of water access, sanitation, and hygiene in the U.S. and around the world.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・

Big Ben with the U.K. and E.U. flags

What’s next for the UK and Europe?

Years of debate and negotiation are coming to a head as the deadline for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union looms. Political science professor Brendan O’Leary explains what’s happened and what could come next.

Gwyneth K. Shaw

Group of students and professor gathered at monument with mountain in back.

Seeing, hearing, and encountering post-apartheid South Africa

A Penn Global Seminar course taught by Carol Muller took the 16 undergraduates to South Africa to explore that nation's history and post-apartheid present day through music and culture. The students demonstrated the impact of the journey through final projects including a painting, a written paper, a poem, a film, a photo essay, a musical score—even a set of political cartoons.

Louisa Shepard ・

Panelists at the "Grassroots Organizing in the MeToo Era" at Perry World House

Making a movement from #MeToo

At Perry World House Monday, activists from around the world talked about how they’re working to make sure the stories of women and girls are told—and heard.

Gwyneth K. Shaw

seeds found at bartrams garden

Unearthing a botanical legacy, one seed at a time

Painstaking work by Penn Museum archaeobotanist Chantel White and students has verified what the Bartrams sold and exported to Europe in the 1800s, and shed light on the family’s daily dietary habits.

Michele W. Berger ・

two scooters parked next to a bike rack with bikes parked on a sidewalk

Public scooters may soon zip through Philadelphia

The School of Design’s Megan Ryerson assisted with the city’s debate over the scooter as a safe and viable transportation alternative, as Pennsylvania assesses a bill to legalize electric scooters on public streets.

Penn Today Staff ・

Sophia Rosenfeld

Not-so-self-evident truths

In her new book, Sophia Rosenfeld, the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, digs up the roots of the relationship between democracy and truth.

Penn Today Staff ・



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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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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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 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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