9.30
Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Guthrie Ramsey’s creative journey of healing, collaboration, and persistence
Guthrie Ramsey’s creative journey of healing, collaboration, and persistence
Music Professor Guthrie Ramsey has released a new album of songs meant to pay homage to his many musical partnerships. The project was prompted by his cancer diagnosis and influenced by the global pandemic and uprising against racial injustice.
To Singapore and back again
To Singapore and back again
Rising senior Jackie Shi spent the early part of the spring semester studying abroad in Southeast Asia.
Cholera vs. flu: Philadelphia’s historical epidemic successes and failures
Cholera vs. flu: Philadelphia’s historical epidemic successes and failures
Philadelphia’s response to the 1918 influenza might be the poster child of how not to handle an epidemic. Timothy Kent Holliday makes the case that the city was well equipped for outbreaks decades and even centuries earlier.
New database aims to make Alzheimer’s diagnosis easier and earlier
New database aims to make Alzheimer’s diagnosis easier and earlier
A five-minute online session will allow neural health to be tracked across time, so that doctors can make an earlier diagnosis and researchers can evaluate medications and other treatments.
Children’s literature as ‘seed work’
Children’s literature as ‘seed work’
Penn GSE’s Ebony Elizabeth Thomas discusses the importance of more diverse books for kids and the challenges that continue to stifle early anti-racist learning. She also shares a curated list of recommended books for youth catered to this particular moment.
Michael Hanchard on continuing injustice and the fight for equal protections
Michael Hanchard on continuing injustice and the fight for equal protections
The chair and Gustave C. Kuemmerle Professor of Africana Studies, discusses the recent wave of protests following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other unarmed Black women and men across the country.
Coding for a cause
Coding for a cause
As the viral pandemic shuttered campus and disrupted routines, The Borders and Boundaries Project turned the challenging situation into a chance to give back and get work done.
Penn performers keep creating during pandemic
Penn performers keep creating during pandemic
During the pandemic, the student Performing Arts Council has been working with the Platt Student Performing Arts House to encourage and support the hundreds of Penn performers, finding ways to promote their work on social media.
What the 1968 Kerner Commission can teach us
What the 1968 Kerner Commission can teach us
Criminologist and statistician Richard Berk, who worked on the report as a graduate student, explains the systemic racism and poverty found to underlie violent unrest in the 1960s and where COVID-19 and the economy fit today.
Philanthropy class provides $55K in grants to local nonprofits amid the pandemic
Philanthropy class provides $55K in grants to local nonprofits amid the pandemic
As the COVID-19 epidemic began to affect all aspects of daily life in Philadelphia communities, SP2 students saw their lessons collide with the ways local philanthropic funders and nonprofit organizations address unprecedented challenges in real time.
In the News
Philadelphia Inquirer
They Shazamed songs blasting from cars on Philly’s Girard Avenue and created a ‘Girard Jams’ playlist on Spotify
Guthrie Ramsey of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about two Philadelphians who compiled a playlist of songs played from cars passing by their apartment. “If we all listen to playlists created in that manner for us, you might get a different understanding about the world surrounding you,” he said.
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CNBC
$300 unemployment benefits end in at least 9 states as stimulus hopes fade
Ioana Marinescu of the School of Social Policy & Practice spoke about the absence of a second stimulus detail and its impact on unemployed Americans. “This is going to be hardest on more disadvantaged, lower-income individuals and communities of color because they’ve been disproportionately impacted by job loss,” she said. “Also, a dollar means more to a poor person than a rich person. Losing those precious dollars is really a meaningful loss for those people.”
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Chicago Tribune
Commentary: Ruth Bader Ginsburg practiced anti-cancel culture
Jonathan Zimmerman of the Graduate School of Education wrote an op-ed about how Ruth Bader Ginsburg modeled a better way of engaging with political and intellectual opponents. “Her entire career reflected the faith that you could move others to your point of view,” he said.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
What scares Pa. teens about climate change and how do they want to fight back, a year after massive global protests?
Freshman Nia Peterson shared how she became passionate about combatting climate change. “To provide ourselves and our futures a fighting chance, we first need to acknowledge the situation,” she wrote.
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PBS NewsHour
Gehry-designed Eisenhower Memorial unveiled after 20 years—during a fraught moment
David Eisenhower of the Annenberg School for Communication spoke about a new memorial to his grandfather, President Dwight D. Eisenhower. “I think memorialization is a process that is renewed,” he said. “So, when you dedicate the memorial, I think that you are investing or gambling, in a sense, on the future, that the message that a memorial conveys will have a kind of timeless quality to it.”
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