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Social Sciences

Penn’s Benjamin Nathans reflects on his work and Pulitzer Prize win
Benjamin Nathans sits at a table in his office.

Benjamin Nathans has been studying Soviet and Russian history for four decades.

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Penn’s Benjamin Nathans reflects on his work and Pulitzer Prize win

Historian Benjamin Nathans’ huge volume on the stories and lives of Soviet dissidents has gotten renewed attention after winning the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Nathan’s research and insights span a four-decade-long career studying Russia and the USSR, modern Jewish history, and the history of human rights.

5 min. read

Building babyGPTs
Morales-Navarro assists a student who holds a computer tablet

Penn GSE doctoral student Morales-Navarro assists a student on the first day of the workshop at the Franklin Institute.

(Image: Darryl Moran)

Building babyGPTs

How Penn’s Graduate School of Education and the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia are redefining AI literacy for youth.

From Penn GSE

2 min. read

Eugenie Birch honored with Regional Plan Association Above and Beyond Award

Eugenie Birch honored with Regional Plan Association Above and Beyond Award

Eugenie Birch, Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research and Education in the Department of City and Regional Planning and co-director of Penn’s Institute for Urban Research, has been selected to receive the Above and Beyond Award from the Regional Plan Association (RPA) for her contributions to urban planning policy and longstanding service to the RPA.

Understanding how young children recognize emotions in music
Young child with headphones on.

Image: Uma Shankar sharma via Getty Images

Understanding how young children recognize emotions in music

Research from psychologists in the School of Arts & Sciences shows that children ages 3 to 5 can identify emotions in music, but that kids who show fewer signs of empathy or guilt demonstrate poorer emotion recognition. “We’re excited to continue to use music as a paradigm both to understand underlying mechanisms and as a treatment target,” Rebecca Waller says.

2 min. read

Merging academics with real-world, tangible experiences
Sarah Usandivaras Klaehn standing outside steps of Fisher Fine Arts building on campus

From Asunción, Paraguay, rising fourth-year Sarah Usandivaras Klaehn is a marketing and communications summer intern for the nonprofit Girls Inc. in Manhattan.

(Image: Courtesy of Sarah Usandivaras Klaehn)

Merging academics with real-world, tangible experiences

Adding to her experience working for nonprofits, rising fourth-year Sarah Usandivaras Klaehn is a marketing and communications intern for Girls Inc. in Manhattan this summer.

Louisa Shepard

4 min. read

Summer program for teens combines practical economics and college life
Students in the Economics Academy are seen along with a whiteboard with notes from an earlier project.

Economics Academy students work on a game theory project with notes from a previous international research project on the whiteboards.

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Summer program for teens combines practical economics and college life

The Economics Academy introduces high school students to key principles and applications, learning while living on campus.

3 min. read

New global media textbook edited by Annenberg’s Juan Llamas-Rodriguez

New global media textbook edited by Annenberg’s Juan Llamas-Rodriguez

A new edited collection from Annenberg School for Communication professor Juan Llamas-Rodriguez titled “Media Travels: Toward an Atlas of Global Media” brings readers on a tour of media beyond the typical U.S. canon.

SHEAR James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize to Sarah L. H. Gronningsater for “The Rising Generation”

SHEAR James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize to Sarah L. H. Gronningsater for “The Rising Generation”

The James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize, awarded annually to the best first book by a new author published in the previous calendar year and dealing with any aspect of the history of the early American republic, went to Sarah L. H. Gronningsater, associate professor of history at Penn’s School of Arts &N Sciences, for “The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom.”