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Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Past successes, future questions as United Nations turns 75
Perry World House held a series of virtual talks with global leaders looking at the organization’s current efforts, ongoing struggles, and future.
Trump’s 2016 rhetoric and Latino immigrant civic behavior
A new book by political scientist Michael Jones-Correa sheds light on immigrants’ attitudes before, during, and after Trump’s election.
Takeaways from the vice presidential debate
Historian Barbara D. Savage shares her thoughts on the first vice presidential debate in history featuring a Black woman.
Simple solutions reduce court no-shows, subsequent arrest warrants
For low-level offenses in New York City, text nudges and a redesigned summons form decreased failure-to-appear rates by about 20% and led to 30,000 fewer arrest warrants over a three-year period.
Safely reengaging with nightlife and supporting the creative economy
PennPraxis researchers are collaborating on the Global Nighttime Recovery Plan, which provides best practices, real-world examples, and frameworks for safe and inclusive nightlife.
Sachs grant paves way for ‘Sis Uprising’ in experimental video
Works by Arien Wilkerson and Sachs Artist-in-Residence Ricardo Bracho debut at a virtual event for Slought.
Penn Dental and SP2 partner to address racism, reconciliation, and engagement
A new, online course for incoming SP2 students entitled “The Penn Experience: Racism, Reconciliation and Engagement” was created in collaboration with Penn’s School of Dental Medicine and launched in July.
New exhibition ‘Re-materialize’ features artists who transform recycled materials
Open to the public for the first time since March, the Arthur Ross Gallery’s new exhibition “Re-materialize” features sculptures and mixed-media work by four artists who transform found and recycled materials.
New student-created journal offers window to Middle East, North Africa
Sophomore Laila Shadid and junior Zeynep Karadeniz, both in the College of Arts and Sciences, share a passion for understanding the Middle East—a passion that is now on display in “Fenjan.”
Across U.S. Catholic archdioceses, child protection policies vary widely
A report from CHILD USA, led by Professor of Practice Marci Hamilton, found that such policies lack uniformity, aren’t comprehensive, and often don’t take a victim-centered approach.
In the News
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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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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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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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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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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