Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

A bushfire burning in Queensland Australia

Urban planning for biodiversity after bushfires

The Weitzman School’s Richard Weller visited Sydney for a two-week intensive on critical urban challenges and converting a parkland into an incubator for wildlife.

Penn Today Staff ・

students gathered around a table looking at armor

A day in shining armor

Grad students get a close-up view of artwork and materials from museum collections—including a 500-year-old painting and two sets of armor from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Louisa Shepard ・

Bolivian flag flying on high rocky terrain with mountain peaks in background

Bolivia: Coup or election fraud?

Quechua scholar Américo Mendoza-Mori and political scientist Tulia Falleti discuss the ousting of the country’s first indigenous president and the tumultuous state of Bolivian politics as the country prepares for elections in May.

Kristina García ・

Beijing skyline at dusk

Visualizing future cities with Zhongjie Lin

A new three-year project called called “Spatial Visions Connecting China and the West: A Centennial Review and New Perspectives on Future Urban Environments” will address global issues like climate change and migration will begin at Penn and travel to Beijing.

Penn Today Staff ・

Pedestrian on the sidewalk walking past the wall of the former US embassy in Tehran.

A history of U.S.-Iran relations

John Ghazvinian, interim director of the Middle East Center and an expert on Iran/U.S. relations, talks about the countries’ historical relationship and what led to the current situation.

Kristen de Groot ・



In the News


The Washington Post

Trump’s sarcastic response to Mitt Romney’s negative test for coronavirus follows years of bad blood

Claire Finkelstein of the Law School commented on President Trump’s negative reaction to Mitt Romney’s self-quarantine. “[Trump] would have had a moment there to unify the country around this crisis and to show his moral leadership in doing so,” she said.

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The Hill

Lessons learned in an emergency

PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno wrote about how the U.S. can apply lessons learned from the past to the coronavirus pandemic. “The country needs to reorient itself to the advantages that the U.S. military can provide in this crisis,” he wrote. “If we look at our recent history, we will find lessons that can help with tactics and strategy.”

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The Washington Post

These social policies could help the U.S. cope with the coronavirus pandemic

Julia Lynch of the School of Arts and Sciences wrote about the U.S.’s structural vulnerabilities to the effects of COVID-19 and what we can learn from other wealthy democracies about how to cope.

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The Washington Post

How can Trump fight the pandemic when he’s chasing experts out of government?

John Gans of Perry World House wrote about the administration’s removal of “disloyal” civil servants and the effect on the effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic. “This sort of purge is undermining government at a time when it is needed most,” he wrote.

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The New York Times

Fed could bolster groups of businesses and localities with funds in G.O.P. bill

Peter Conti-Brown of the Wharton School said the Federal Reserve should avoid helping specific industries with emergency funding. The banking system has a “convenient set of easy tools that allow policymakers and politicians to skip the burden of their own accountability,” said Conti-Brown. “It’s the kind of set the Fed does not want to make today—which is to pick winners and losers.”

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