1.21
Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Inside election night 2020
Inside election night 2020
During a virtual panel, Penn students, faculty, and staff who worked on NBC’s Decision Desk on Election night gave a behind-the-scenes look at the high-pressure night
Two Penn English faculty receive Creative Capital Award for writing projects
Two Penn English faculty receive Creative Capital Award for writing projects
Faculty Simone White and Marc Anthony Richardson each won a 2021 Creative Capital Award, and will receive as much as $50,000 for creative writing projects now in progress.
Place-making and mythmaking: A virtual lecture
Place-making and mythmaking: A virtual lecture
In American history, one place can be the site of multiple—and sometimes conflicting— attachments. Jared Farmer and Bethany Wiggin of the School of Arts & Sciences discuss place-making and myth-making.
Four strategies to find joy in a very different holiday season
Four strategies to find joy in a very different holiday season
Experts from Penn’s Positive Psychology Center suggest tweaking traditions, acknowledging the situation’s highs and lows, and seeking help from people in your life.
In Steve Fluharty, a steward of the arts and sciences
In Steve Fluharty, a steward of the arts and sciences
A look at the career—so far—of School of Arts & Sciences Dean Steve Fluharty, now in his second term as dean and his sixth decade at Penn.
Penn senior and May graduate win 2021 Marshall Scholarships
Penn senior and May graduate win 2021 Marshall Scholarships
Senior Annah Chollet and May graduate Yareqzy Munoz have been named 2021 Marshall Scholars. The Marshall Scholarship funds up to three years of study for a graduate degree in any field at an institution in the United Kingdom.
Sensuality in Latin American literature and film
Sensuality in Latin American literature and film
Ph.D. student Dana Khromov presented her research on the body as the site of sensuality in Latin American literature and film as part of the Latin American and Latinx Studies Internal Speakers series.
Presidential pardons, explained
Presidential pardons, explained
Law expert Kermit Roosevelt discusses how the pardon process works and why it exists in the first place.
Kelly Writers House celebrates its 10th Edible Book contest
Kelly Writers House celebrates its 10th Edible Book contest
The Kelly Writers House virtually hosted its 10th annual Edible Books contest celebrating clever combinations of literature titles and food creations.
How can cities become healthier, greener, and more equitable in the future?
How can cities become healthier, greener, and more equitable in the future?
In a year marked by COVID-19, renewed calls for racial justice, a contentious presidential election, and an active wildfire and hurricane season, Penn experts share what’s needed to make urban areas more resilient to future crises.
In the News
The Washington Post
On conservative talk radio, efforts to tone down inflammatory rhetoric appear limited
Brian Rosenwald of the School of Arts & Sciences weighed in on how conservative talk radio hosts will address the incoming Biden administration. “A Democratic administration equals a new boogeymen to focus on,” said Rosenwald. “You might have offhand references or conversation about Biden being an illegitimate president, but the focus won’t be on the ‘stolen election’ unless and until there is fresh news on the topic.”
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Philadelphia Inquirer
From the fashion to the flags, Joe Biden’s inauguration presents a vision of a unified America
Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw of the School of Arts & Sciences weighed in on some of the outfits seen at President Biden’s inauguration. “There was a real conscious choice not to wear polarizing colors,” she said. “There was a sense of merging red and blue into one to visualize the bringing together of the country. These two hues have been used to politically separate us into tribes. This was a visual end to that.”
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The Washington Post
The Trump presidency was marked by battles over truth itself. Those aren’t over
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center said people can be primed to believe false information through repetition. “What Trump did was take tactics of deception and played to confirmation biases that were already circulating in our culture and embodied them in somebody who is president of the United States. He didn’t change what was available, but he changed its accessibility,” she said. “That crazed content has always been there. But it becomes dangerous when it is legitimized and when it has the power of the state behind it.”
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The New York Times
Go ahead. Fantasize
Martin Seligman of the School of Arts & Sciences said dreaming about the future can help people live well in the present. “Imagining the future—we call this skill prospection—and prospection is subserved by a set of brain circuits that juxtapose time and space and get you imagining things well and beyond the here and now,” he said. “The essence of resilience about the future is: How good a prospector are you?”
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Huffington Post
Trump supporters’ main problem was never the economy
Research by Diana Mutz of the Annenberg School for Communication and School of Arts & Sciences found that people who voted for Trump in 2016 did so because of racial anxieties, not economic distress. “It’s the same old same old. White males have been the group with the most power in our country for a long, long time,” she said. “Change is hard.”
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