1.15
Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Penn Green Fund Accepting New Applications Beginning Feb. 1, Submission Deadline Is March 15
PHILADELPHIA –- The University of Pennsylvania’s Green Fund will accept applications beginning Feb. 1 for a second round of one-time grants to be used to finance innovative ideas from students, faculty or staff that are designed to help Penn meet its sustainability goals, as outlined in its Climate Action Plan.
Language Structure Is Partly Determined by Social Structure, Says Penn Psychology Study
PHILADELPHIA –- Psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Memphis have released a new study on linguistic evolution that challenges the prominent hypothesis for why languages differ throughout the world.
Penn Receives $20 Million for University Professorships; Weiss Gift Will Create Four PIK Positions
PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania has received a $20 million gift designated for faculty support from George A.
Penn Sets 30% Recycling Goal for National RecycleMania Competition in Support of Climate Action Plan
PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania wants the campus community to recycle 30 percent of its waste as it joins more than 400 colleges and universities nationwide participating in RecycleMania this year. RecycleMania is a 10-week competition for students, faculty and staff, designed to encourage both recycling and waste minimization.
Penn Libraries Receive Chaim Potok Papers
PHILADELPHIA –- The University of Pennsylvania is now home to papers documenting the life and literary career of novelist, rabbi and professor Chaim Potok.
Actress Anna Deavere Smith to Explore Human Spirit, Resiliency in ‘Let Me Down Easy’ Presentation Jan. 26
WHO: Anna Deavere Smith, an actress, teacher and playwright, will discuss and perform selected scenes from her latest highly acclaimed piece, “Let Me Down Easy.”
Mukesh D. Ambani Awarded Inaugural Dean’s Medal From the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science
PHILADELPHIA –- Mukesh D. Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd., has been awarded the inaugural Dean’s Medal from Eduardo Glandt, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Penn Awarded Funding for Critical Zone Observatory Project
PHILADELPHIA –- Environmentalists from the University of Pennsylvania have been awarded a $4.35 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a Critical Zone Observatory in Puerto Rico.
In the News
As law enforcement braces for more violence, state Capitols come into focus
Anne Berg of the School of Arts & Sciences said images of violence at the U.S. Capitol may result in fewer rallies and public events organized by extremists. However, she said, “I'm personally less worried about the next two weeks than I am about the next several years.”
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‘No white guilt’ signs causing big uproar in Montgomery County community
Anne Berg of the School of Arts & Sciences weighed in on “No white guilt” signs spotted in Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County. The phrase may be a response to the Black Lives Matter movement. “It is time they step aside and recognize that this movement isn’t about white men. It’s not about white women either. It’s about the advancement of Black lives,” she said.
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Philadelphia’s COVID rental assistance program to roll out differently in 2021
Research by Vincent Reina of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design found that most Philadelphia-based applicants for pandemic-related rent relief were struggling to pay rent even before March 2020. “These are households that clearly showed distress before,” he said.
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How much will homelessness rise? Grim study shows possible ‘impact of doing nothing,’ researchers say
Dennis Culhane of the School of Social Policy & Practice commented on a study that found that homelessness in the U.S. could increase dramatically if a recession follows the pandemic. “This report certainly is a warning alarm for the potential impact of doing nothing,” he said.
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Our democracy remains intact, thanks to our courts, free press, and right to assembly
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center wrote an op-ed about the durability of democracy in the U.S. amid polarization, disinformation, and other obstacles. “Individuals exercised constitutional freedoms, especially the mutually reinforcing ones of speech, press, petition, peaceable assembly, and the opportunity to vote—to bend the arc of the country’s history toward justice,” she wrote.
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