4.23
Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Students volunteer in the nation’s capital
As part of Civic House’s Alternative Winter Break, 10 students lived at a service-learning hostel and worked with the community lending a hand.
Iconic preservation: A plan for the O’Keeffe home and studio
A balance of science and critical thinking, plus reverence for the artist’s work and devotion to her space, makes the conservation assessment by a PennDesign team especially meaningful.
Copyright expiration releases works to the world
Works from 1923 have entered the public domain after a 20-year extension on copyright protections. The Penn Libraries is digitizing unique works to share.
How gospel music gave birth to rock and soul
Capping a 16-month project funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, WXPN will debut a four-part radio documentary on Feb. 4, sharing the stories of the early beginnings and influence of gospel music.
How the appliance boom moved more women into the workforce
A new book from economist Jeremy Greenwood looks at the effects of technological progress on home life.
Procrastinating on climate change
Joseph Kable, Baird Term Professor of Psychology, studies how people make (or don’t make) decisions. He calls the circumstances around climate change a “perfect storm of features” that’s leading us to not act.
Expert voices 2019: Why cities?
Housing the majority of the global population, cities have come to define and shape the overarching challenges of the 21st century. The speed and scale of their development is unprecedented, raising complex questions about how to address the changes they bring to communities around the world.
Can a critic who becomes a believer sway others? The case of genetically modified foods
A study from researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center shows that a conversion message, when a strong advocate for one side of a controversial issue in science publicly announces that they now believe the opposite, can influence public attitudes toward genetically modified foods.
‘Lost world, lost lives, and the displacement of a culture’
Hundreds of books looted by the Nazis during World War II sit on the shelves of the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, a window into a different time in history and individuals we may have otherwise never known.
Designing with resilience to prepare for a changing world
Urban designers joined with architects, engineers, city planners, sociologists, and other experts to share strategies for adapting to rising sea levels, fiercer storms, and sinking shorelines, coinciding with the launch of the Certificate in Urban Resilience at the School of Design.
In the News
Smithsonian Magazine
If Thanos actually wiped out half of all life, how would Earth fare in the aftermath?
Lauren Sallan of the School of Arts and Sciences discussed the hypothetical results of a mass-extinction event, like the one depicted in “The Avengers” movie franchise. “I think humans would figure out a way to [survive], provided that not all of the ecosystems collapse,” said Sallan.
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Chronicle of Social Change
Does your agency reflect the diversity of the community it serves? Why not?
Raekwon Burton, a grad student in the School of Social Policy & Practice, wrote about the lack of diversity in the field of social work.
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WHYY (Philadelphia)
Eastern Pennsylvania's population growth bypasses western Pa.
Domenic Vitiello of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design weighed in on Pennsylvania’s shifts in population. “Pennsylvania remains very much a Rust Belt state,” he said. “But it’s heartening that we’re not declining as precipitously as we were in the 1970s or 1980s.”
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Time
The Mueller report is embarrassing for Trump, but it doesn’t call into question his 2016 win
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center was cited for her book Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President.
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Time
Why spicy food makes your nose run—and why it’s great for you
Paul Rozin of the School of Arts and Sciences explained why we enjoy eating spicy food, a kind of “benign masochism.” “People seem to enjoy pushing the limits of what we can take,” he said.
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