Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

New Leadership and a New Affiliation for Penn's Fels Center of Government

PHILADELPHIA - Samuel H. Preston, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, has named leading criminologist Lawrence W. Sherman as the new Director of the Fels Center of Government. Sherman will also be appointed the Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations in the Department of Sociology.

Elaine Wilner ・

Author Carmen Machado sitting on a sofa by a window and the cover of her memoir In the Dream House with an illustration of a house with a person looking out

Tales of abuse from a ‘Dream House’

Carmen María Machado, who teaches speculative fiction as a writer in residence in the Creative Writing Program, has received extraordinary attention for her new memoir, “In the Dream House,” using multiple genres to describe an abusive relationship with her former girlfriend.

Louisa Shepard

Oscar

And the Oscar goes to…

Excellent writing is evident in many of the films nominated for Academy Awards this year, with several edgy alternative films sharing major categories with mainstream blockbusters, says Penn’s Timothy Corrigan, a professor of English and cinema and media studies.

Louisa Shepard

A Quarter-century of Community Partnerships

Glen Casey will be the first to admit it: He wasn’t the perfect student in high school. “I was always doing the dumbest things; getting into fights, getting arrested,” he says. A student then at University City High, Casey failed ninth grade, and barely passed 10th. “I just really wasn’t into school,” he says.

two students standing outside on Locust Walk

Two Penn juniors named Truman Scholars

Two juniors, Annah Chollet and Camilo Duran, have received Harry S. Truman Scholarships, a merit-based award of as much as $30,000 for graduate or professional school to prepare for careers in public service.

Louisa Shepard , Aaron Olson



In the News


Vice

TV stations broke law by airing Amazon propaganda as news, experts say

Victor Pickard of the Annenberg School for Communication said the airing of marketing materials without adequate disclosure on news stations reflects the decline of quality local journalism. “Structural factors that create fertile conditions for such corporate propaganda include the loss of actual journalists, little regulatory oversight, and media ownership concentration, which tends to both intensify commercial pressures and homogenize media content,” he said.

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Huffington Post

Right-wing radio reaches tens of millions. Its coronavirus conspiracies are out of control

Brian Rosenwald of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about the popularity of conservative talk radio hosts, who maintain close relationships with their listeners. “They may listen 15 hours a week to that host. For Rush [Limbaugh], they might have been doing that for 30 years and they might spend more time with him than they spend with their spouse,” Rosenwald said. “It’s a deeper bond.”

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Science

No asteroids needed: ancient mass extinction tied to ozone loss, warming climate

Lauren Sallan of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about the end of the Devonian period 359 million years ago, in which the ozone layer was damaged, resulting in a mass extinction. The discovery is significant to today’s climate change research.

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NPR

Phase One frenzies; provocative predictions; the bread boom

Mary Frances Berry of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about predictions she made back in March about how the coronavirus pandemic would change the world. Berry reiterated her initial prediction that society will crave more distraction and entertainment in the aftermath of the crisis.

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The Wall Street Journal

How architects are already planning the future of offices

Marion Weiss of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design spoke about the future of office architecture. “Employers may have fewer people on premises at any one time, but they may need more space per person,” she said.

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