Campus & Community

The debate over the future of New Orleans can’t begin and end with the levees. If Hurricane Katrina taught us anything, says Anuradha Mathur, it’s that we need to change the way we look at our landscapes—especially those prone to flooding. “What if you started to rethink the rebuilding of New Orleans as if there were no levees?”

Americans aren’t getting any less religious, says Sarah Barringer Gordon. And so, just as it has for all of U.S. history, religion will continue to shape American politics, law and culture. “An open skeptic like Thomas Jefferson ... might have had a hard time in 2000.”

STAFF Q&A/Bob Gutowski shares his love of nature as head of Morris Arboretum’s public programs. “You’ve never seen an evening gown that’s as beautiful as a cedar waxwing.”

Q&A/This film scholar and author of a book about Hollywood culture talks about the past and present of the Oscars—and what the future holds for the movie industry. “I think people still like the experience of going to movies. It’s ... a communal experience.”

STAFF Q&A/Trombonist Michael Ketner is the man behind the curtain at Penn’s Music Department. “These are student groups, but they’re good, and they play at a high level.”

Q&A/This spring the 6th floor of Van Pelt is celebrating Ben Franklin with an exhibit on Colonial education in the Delaware Valley. We talk to the library staff who brought “Educating the Youth of Pennsylvania” from a rough idea to a fully realized exhibit. “Charter schools today remind me a lot of what was going on during the Colonial period.”

Q&A/Penn Museum’s keeper of physical anthropology talks about scanning mummies, making molds of Neanderthals and why human babies are born so small and helpless. “I’m one of those people who have crazy loves and I have a love for everything about evolution.”

STAFF Q&A/A booster for the local music scene, Maria Tessa Sciarrino can’t get enough of the Philadelphia sound. “I think it’s great that everybody’s getting the attention.” Maria Tessa Sciarrino studied photography in college, but admits she wasn’t the best student: “I was too busy going to concerts.”

Q&A/After decades of groundbreaking work, linguist William Labov remains at the forefront of his field. His most far-reaching research, a comprehensive atlas of North American English, has just been published. “In almost every language change, there’s something going on underneath the hood.”