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Social Sciences

The stories of a war-scarred Colombian rainforest
The Colombian rainforest.

Aerial view of the torrential rivers of the Andean-Amazonian foothills of Putumayo.

(Image: Daniel Mendieta Giraldo)

The stories of a war-scarred Colombian rainforest

Through her research, Kristina Lyons, associate professor of anthropology, is relaying the tales of the land’s suffering, as well as its enduring practical and spiritual importance to its residents.

Blake Cole

Immigration policy and the 2024 presidential election
A group of migrants along the Mexico-California border show their identification to U.S. Border Patrol agents, with brown mountains in the background and the sun about to rise, giving a spot of light in an overcast sky.

U.S. Border Patrol agents with migrants seeking asylum, mainly from Colombia, China, and Ecuador, in a makeshift, mountainous campsite after crossing the border between Mexico and the United States on Feb. 2, 2024, near Jacumba, California. 

(Image: AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Immigration policy and the 2024 presidential election

An April 2 symposium will bring together policy analysts, immigration scholars, and representatives of nonprofit advocacy organizations to discuss immigration policies and their impact.

Kristen de Groot

The soils beneath the solar fields
Hannah Win takes soil samples at a solar site.

To take soil samples at the solar site, Hannah Winn wields a bulb planter and mixes samples from across locations, looking at variables such that reflect the biological, chemical, and physical properties of the soil.

(Image: Courtesy of AES)

The soils beneath the solar fields

How do solar farms impact soil health? It’s a question that master’s student Hannah Winn is exploring at the central Pennsylvania site where solar energy production is helping Penn progress toward carbon neutrality.

Katherine Unger Baillie

‘Are Civil Rights Enough?’
Dorothy Roberts speaks at a podium. The wooden podium has the words "University of Pennsylvania" and its seal.

PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts addresses the audience at the  23rd annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture in Social Justice.

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‘Are Civil Rights Enough?’

During the 23rd annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture in Social Justice, PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts addressed the question “Are Civil Rights Enough?”

Kristina García

Thabo Lenneiye on PennPraxis, global outreach, and cross-discipline collaboration
Thabo Lenneiye on Penn’s campus.

Managing director of PennPraxis Thabo Lenneiye.

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Thabo Lenneiye on PennPraxis, global outreach, and cross-discipline collaboration

The new managing director of The Weitzman School’s PennPraxis is a Penn alum who has worked for years on complex mixed-use development and urban planning projects and spearheading DEI initiatives.

From the Weitzman School of Design

Guy Grossman offers a model for refugee hosting
Guy Grossman.

Guy Grossman, political science professor in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences.

(Image: Courtesy of OMNIA)

Guy Grossman offers a model for refugee hosting

The political science professor investigates the effects of Uganda’s refugee-hosting reforms on preventing public backlash.

From Omnia

‘Building bridges’: Iraqi Global Guide offers tours, personal insight
Yaroub Al-Obaidi stands in front of a sign reading Middle East Galleries inside the Penn Museum.

Yaroub Al-Obaidi is a Global Guide at the Penn Museum’s Middle East Galleries.

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‘Building bridges’: Iraqi Global Guide offers tours, personal insight

Yaroub Al-Obaidi, an Iraqi artist and scholar who settled in Philadelphia in 2016, gives Penn Museum visitors an insider’s view of the Middle East Galleries and creates connections with U.S. Iraq War veterans.

Kristen de Groot

A new role for NATO in conflict zones
A damaged area in Mosul. Image: Gina Haney

A view of Mosul following attacks on the city by ISIS. Image: Gina Haney

(Image: Gina Haney)

A new role for NATO in conflict zones

One year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, PIK Professor Lynn Meskell calls on the alliance to take a more expansive view of cultural property protection.

From the Weitzman School of Design

Understanding India’s urban future
khandela city streets

An unpaved road in Khandela. Most small towns have poor-quality roads, Thachil says. “They need everything.”

(Image: Tariq Thachil)

Understanding India’s urban future

A two-year project supported by Penn Global and the Center for the Advanced Study of India takes a deep dive into the political workings of India’s rapidly urbanizing landscape.

Kristina García

The future of health research in Malawi
Four peple standing, posing for the camera. Three are students at  Kamuzu University of Health Sciences. The fourth is a professor there, Adamson Muula.

Adamson Muula (second from left), a professor of public health & epidemiology at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, and students.

(Image: Courtesy of Young Researchers Forum Malawi and KUHeS Research Support Center)

The future of health research in Malawi

A workshop convened by Penn, University College Dublin, and the Young Researchers Forum in Malawi brought together stakeholders to discuss the African nation’s use of technology in health care and the double burden of non-communicable and infectious diseases.

Michele W. Berger