Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Exhibit catalog to peer inside fantastical mind of Penn artist

“Out, Out, Phosphene Candle” is one of The Sach’s Program for Arts Innovation 23 projects that received funding this spring. A collaboration between Paul Swenback, the building manager for the Institute of Contemporary Art, and Joy Feasley, the fantastical exhibit blends art, nature, and the occult at a gallery in Wisconsin, and in a forthcoming book on the exhibit.

Brandon K. Baker

Understanding the social dynamics that cause cooperation to thrive, or fail

Many examples of cooperation exist in nature, but it’s far from a universal characteristic of human or animal groups. Using a mathematical model, Erol Akçay showed that less randomly connected social networks make cooperation more likely, but those dynamics may ultimately lead to cooperation’s collapse.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Stains Alive

For Libraries fellow Erin Connelly, stains are some of the most exciting discoveries in her study of medieval manuscripts. She is part of a national team analyzing stains in medieval texts using modern multispectral imaging. An exhibition at Van Pelt-Dietrich Library displays the researchers’ discoveries.

Louisa Shepard , Louisa Shepard

Hack4Impact: a global coding force for good

Students in Hack4Impact, a national student-led group that originated at Penn, spend volunteer hours developing web-based applications for social impact nonprofits around the country.

Penn Today Staff

Academic ‘boot camp’

A group of 13 active-duty service members and veterans took part in the Warrior-Scholar Project, which introduces enlisted personnel toward an undergraduate program at a top-tier institution with a weeklong academic program.

Jill DiSanto

Serving those who serve

In preparation for a career as a physician with the Military Health System, Ryan Leone is spending his summer in Falls Church, Va., interning with the Defense Health Agency.

Jill DiSanto

On the ground in Washington, D.C.

Rising junior Louis Lin is pursuing his interest in policy making via an International Leadership Foundation Fellowship and an internship with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Jill DiSanto

Brain stimulation decreases intent to commit assault

Research from Penn Medicine and the Criminology department shows that using minimally invasive electrical currents on the prefrontal cortex can reduce the desire to carry out such violence and increase the perception that it’s morally wrong.

Michele W. Berger

The Democracy Project: Reversing a crisis of confidence

The Penn Biden Center, Freedom House, and the George W. Bush Institute reveal the findings of a national survey about democracy at home and abroad, which cites a crisis of public confidence in the functioning of U.S. democracy.

Carlyn Reichel



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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