1.21
Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Election night 2020: What to expect
Election night 2020: What to expect
Penn professors address what election night might look like, as well as how the culture of elections came to feel like a pop culture event.
How have new social norms emerged as COVID-19 has spread?
How have new social norms emerged as COVID-19 has spread?
In a study of nine countries, researcher Cristina Bicchieri found that motivating people to modify behavior requires changing their expectations about the actions and thoughts of those who matter to them.
Iran-China partnership: A reported new deal for a relationship going back to antiquity
Iran-China partnership: A reported new deal for a relationship going back to antiquity
William Figueroa, who recently earned his doctoral degree in history, shares his take on the past relations and what the new partnership could mean.
Protests matter, and here’s why
Protests matter, and here’s why
As part of the Provost’s Lecture on Diversity, political science professor Daniel Gillion gave insight into how demonstrations affect elected officials, shape policy, increase engagement, and motivate voter turnout.
Four things to know about violence erupting in Nigeria
Four things to know about violence erupting in Nigeria
Osagie Imasogie of the Law School, who earned his early legal education in Nigeria, shares his take on the escalating unrest in the country.
Pope Francis supports same-sex unions
Pope Francis supports same-sex unions
The Catholic Church has long stated that marriage is between a man and a woman, a position Pope Francis supports. Melissa Wilde and Anthea Butler discuss the Pope’s recent support of civil unions that ensure legal rights for same-sex couples.
Pew Center for Arts & Heritage awards 2020 grants to Penn projects
Pew Center for Arts & Heritage awards 2020 grants to Penn projects
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage announced 41 grants totaling $10.5 million in support of the Institute for Contemporary Art and Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and a Girard College project involving theater director Brooke O’Harra and music composer Tyshawn Sorey.
Is American democracy at a breaking point?
Is American democracy at a breaking point?
Amidst a backdrop of protests, the pandemic, and presidential politics, historian Anne Berg shares her thoughts on whether American democracy is at risk, historical parallels to the current situation, and what ordinary people can do.
‘Perspectives on Fair Housing’ looks back on more than 50 years of landmark legislation
‘Perspectives on Fair Housing’ looks back on more than 50 years of landmark legislation
A new Penn Press book featuring experts from law, education, urban studies, and social policy presents fair housing as one of the foremost issues facing the U.S. today.
Latin American Green New Deal
Latin American Green New Deal
Daniel Aldana Cohen, an assistant professor of sociology in the School of Arts & Sciences, organized and moderated an event on the Latin American Green New Deal, rethinking recession recovery and carbon emissions reduction.
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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