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Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
‘Then and Now: Black-Jewish Relations in the Civil Rights Movement’
‘Then and Now: Black-Jewish Relations in the Civil Rights Movement’
Professor of religious studies Anthea Butler gave an overview of shared history and discussed next steps in “Then and Now: Black-Jewish Relations in the Civil Rights Movement,” an event hosted by the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.
Design-minded strategies for greener, healthier indoor spaces
Design-minded strategies for greener, healthier indoor spaces
Insights on the evolution of modern building design, how to improve ventilation while reducing energy usage, and ways that architects are supporting their communities with simple, design-based solutions.
Lynn Meskell appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor
Lynn Meskell appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor
The world-renowned archaeologist has joint appointments in the Department of Anthropology, the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and the Department of City and Regional Planning, and the Penn Museum as a curator in both the Asian and Near East sections.
Penn Trustees approve design for the Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology
Penn Trustees approve design for the Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology
Additional support from P. Roy Vagelos and Diana T. Vagelos helps to expand the building project which will consolidate the University’s existing and future energy research.
Libraries scour the stacks for copyright free content
Libraries scour the stacks for copyright free content
Known as the Deep Backfile project, a team of Penn Libraries staff has been analyzing an accumulated history of periodicals in the collection to determine which are no longer restricted by copyright, making them available for free and unrestricted use.
Looking ahead to the election’s impact on U.S. foreign policy
Looking ahead to the election’s impact on U.S. foreign policy
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will make important choices about America’s relationships with allies and partners. A Perry World House roundtable looked at key topics for the new administration.
Making sense of the election
Making sense of the election
Penn political scientists helped a virtual audience process polling, voter turnout, litigation, and a chaotic presidential election.
In the pandemic’s early days, a third of U.S. adults felt depressed, anxious
In the pandemic’s early days, a third of U.S. adults felt depressed, anxious
According to new research from Penn, those feelings worsened as the month of March progressed, and economic worries rather than social distancing or fear of the virus itself played the largest role.
Elizabeth Warren’s take on the election and the path forward
Elizabeth Warren’s take on the election and the path forward
The Massachusetts senator’s discussion with Fels Distinguished Fellow Elizabeth Vale was part of the Fels Public Policy in Practice series.
A lesson in grit from Angela Duckworth
A lesson in grit from Angela Duckworth
Her new Grit Lab course, part of the Paideia Program, teaches Penn undergrads how to develop more passion and perseverance for long-term goals.
In the News
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
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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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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