Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

When the winners of the 2013 Peabody Awards for excellence in broadcasting were announced late last month, Nancy Novack, a University of Pennsylvania alum and a lecturer of fine arts in the School of Design, had cause to celebrate. A film series she edited, the PBS TV documentary “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates Jr.” won a Peabody.

May graduate Tania Chairez never planned to become an activist, but soon after she arrived at the University of Pennsylvania as a freshman, she found a new calling. Chairez became an advocate for undocumented residents of the United States.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Ruth Schwartz Cowan has been elected to the American Philosophical Society. She is professor emerita in the Department of History and Sociology of Science.

One researcher at the University of Pennsylvania wants her MTV -- and has contributed to the development of the network’s new anti-bias campaign, Look Different.

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has awarded a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship to a University of Pennsylvania doctoral candidate and two alumnae.

Jeannie Kenmotsu, a doctoral candidate in the History of Art Department at the University of Pennsylvania, has been awarded a Rare Book School Mellon Fellowship in Critical Bibliography. She is among 20 early-career academics receiving fellowships to attend RBS at the University of Virginia.

WHAT:          University of Pennsylvania's 258th Commencement ceremony

Seven University of Pennsylvania students have been awarded United States Department of State Critical Language Scholarships for study this summer.

When Guy Viner learned in 2011 that the University of Pennsylvania was starting a chapter of Camp Kesem, he quickly joined the group. Camp Kesem, with 54 chapters in 27 states, provides a free one-week overnight summer camp for children affected by a parent’s cancer.

The University of Pennsylvania’s connection to the Henry C. Lea Elementary School is bringing music to the students’ ears there, morning, noon and night.