Our Brand of Learning

You may notice that my name isn’t familiar or perhaps you’ve seen it sporadically in these pages. For the past eight years, I’ve had the privilege of sharing Penn’s inspiring and amazing stories as a science writer in the University’s central communications office. Now I get to continue that tradition as Omnia editor. It is truly an honor. This is my first full issue, and there’s a whole lot to show off.

Like our cover story, “Flow Motion,” which digs into what immersion—in a digital detox, a theatrical production, fieldwork in the Puerto Rican rainforest— means in the context of a liberal arts education, why it’s really at the heart of our brand of learning. In “Emily Wilson’s Epic Life,” we delve into the mind of the classicist whose star rose after she translated Homer’s The Odyssey five years ago. She’s at it again with a new translation of The Iliad, which published in September.

Behind the Cover

We asked illustrator Andrea Mongia to come up with a visual concept that could convey the idea of immersion, the subject of our cover story, written by Karen Brooks. Here’s what he said about his thought process: “When I started working on these sketches, I was moved by how an immersive experience, primarily through virtual reality, could put you in a totally different state of mind, a new way to explore and feel new sensations. The chosen idea, the more abstract one, leads directly to this, a walk through a parallel universe, where the overlap and intersections of the colors guide the eye to an infinite and constantly changing center.” —Lusi Klimenko, Director, Graphic Design

In “Cultivating Discovery,” we take you inside the Department of Biology’s self-described “plant group,” scientists not just innately curious about the natural world, but who also believe that the cutting-edge techniques they’re employing have the potential to make a real difference in everything from the fight against cancer to the one against climate change. Speaking of climate change, given the weather extremes this past summer, we felt it crucial to ask for some answers from the Penn Arts & Sciences faculty studying this subject. The good news is, as “A Race Against Time” makes clear, they’re all optimistic that we’re not too late to turn the tide.

We celebrate Cinema & Media Studies becoming a department in “Building on Success,” and in “Life in China After Lockdown,” learn from three experts on contemporary China what life is like there following the pandemic.

Plus, we have great student stories, like one about Ayesha Patel, C’25, who interned with Philly’s contemporary ballet company BalletX thanks to a new Summer Humanities Internship Program partnership; Mia McElhatton, C’26, who worked with philosophy professor Kok-Chor Tan researching the ethics of wildlife conservation; and Andrew Ahn, C’26, ENG’26, who, as part of the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research, is working in the lab of chemistry professor Eric Schelter trying to green the process of mining metals for electric car batteries.

You may notice some other small changes throughout the magazine, like brief bios of our writers and the explanation of our cover art (to the left on this page) from illustrator Andrea Mongia. That’s because we want you to get a better sense of our process, what’s going through our heads as we put together a product that we believe you’ll enjoy. But we also want to get inside yours, to understand what you like about Omnia, what you’d like to see more of, who you’ve enjoyed getting to know. For that reason, we have a quick request: Click here and take our brief, two-question survey. It will help us understand which stories you’re reading and why. We’ll send the first 300 people who fill it out a Penn Arts & Sciences winter hat.

Thanks for reading!

–Michele W. Berger, Editor