8.21
Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
A life of writing and song
A life of writing and song
Rosanne Cash, a Kelly Writers House Fellow, was on campus for a course taught by English Professor Al Filreis that focuses on three eminent writers each spring semester.
Rare Chinese scroll unfurled at Penn Museum
Rare Chinese scroll unfurled at Penn Museum
Students in a history of art course taught by Professor Nancy Steinhardt had the chance to closely examine a rare 200-year-old painted Chinese scroll at the Penn Museum.
Brain regions linked to memory and emotion help humans navigate smell
Brain regions linked to memory and emotion help humans navigate smell
The work points to the existence of a grid-like hexagonal structure in olfactory-related brain areas, similar to mapping configurations previously found to support spatial navigation in animals.
Protecting the planet at Penn
Protecting the planet at Penn
Earth Day and every day, the University community is at work to make the world a little better. Here are some highlights from those efforts.
Building literacy and leadership through basketball
Building literacy and leadership through basketball
Three seniors with roots in West Africa will use their President’s Engagement Prize to build a program for Liberian girls that will combine sports and reading.
A first-hand look at the complexity of technology for development
A first-hand look at the complexity of technology for development
Students in Guy Grossman’s Penn Global Seminar traveled to Uganda in March, an experience one student says ‘entirely changed’ her thinking about the value of smartphones and other innovations in Africa.
In the pursuit of happiness, a new class leads the charge
In the pursuit of happiness, a new class leads the charge
The course, taught by Positive Psychology’s James Pawelski, not only gives students an intellectual understanding of the subject but asks them to practice what they’re learning.
Twenty-five years after the Rwandan genocide, memorials remember the 800,000 who died
Twenty-five years after the Rwandan genocide, memorials remember the 800,000 who died
Penn historic preservation professor Randall Mason has been working with the country’s government since 2016 to protect and conserve such monuments.
How superstitions spread
How superstitions spread
Superstitious beliefs may seem irrational, but they catch on in a society. Using an evolutionary approach to studying the emergence of coordinated behaviors, Erol Akçay and Bryce Morsky showed how a jumble of individual beliefs, including superstitions, coalesce into an accepted social norm.
The Green New Deal: What it says, what it doesn’t say, and how close we are to adopting it
The Green New Deal: What it says, what it doesn’t say, and how close we are to adopting it
Mark Alan Hughes, director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, discusses the basics of this energy-mobilization proposal.
In the News
NPR
Understanding Kashmir
Suvir Kaul of the School of Arts and Sciences talks about political conflict between Indian and Pakistan. “I’m watching this [Indian] government doing all it can to change that kind of unitary sense of the nation and that’s what worries me enormously,” said Kaul.
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The Washington Post
Is a recession looming? Here’s what experts on the economy are watching
Ioana Marinescu of the School of Social Policy & Practice weighed in on the possibility of a recession in the near future. “I expect a recession any day now, because it’s been almost 12 years since the last trough,” she said. “However, it’s impossible to predict with high accuracy when it will happen since recessions are often precipitated by market panics coalescing around a particular event that is usually hard to anticipate.”
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Philadelphia Inquirer
American flags in Hong Kong show people still fight for our values. Americans should join them
Carolyn Marvin of the Annenberg School for Communication spoke about the relationship between Chinese protestors and American symbolism. The U.S. flag, she said, “represents democracy and—on a good day—it represents human rights.”
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USA Today
Motels as homeless shelters? More local governments are housing people in motel rooms
Dennis Culhane of the School of Social Policy & Practice discussed the advantages of repurposing old motels as shelters for people experiencing homelessness. “First of all, it’s built, so there’s no acquiring property and going through the process of getting architectural drawings and building something from scratch,” he said. “You have an asset that you can basically just polish up and improve.”
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Philadelphia Inquirer
Each night, Philly jails release scores of inmates without returning their IDs, cash or phones
Ruth Shefner of the School of Social Policy & Practice commented on the release of incarcerated people without regard to the time of day and its effect on the people being released.
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