Winners of the Ninth Annual Penn Grad Talks (Video)
TED-style talks on crowdfunding in ancient Greece, gender gaps in political tolerance, shyness, opera singers and language, and how to know what you don’t know, took home the day’s top prizes.
Among the Elephants
Sixth-year Anthropology PhD student Rebecca Winkler has spent more than a decade documenting the lives of elephants and Indigenous people who co-exist in the forests of Thailand.
Modern Medicine and the History of Graverobbing
Using archival documents and primary source material in Philadelphia and Scotland, Catherine Sorrentino, C’25, uncovered what happened to society’s most vulnerable with the rise of “anatomical medicine.”
A Semester of Mentoring
Alums representing media and technology, film production, investment banking, and more offer advice to undergrads at mentoring meals, roundtables, and coffee breaks.
Perspectives on Heritage
Chrislyn Laurie Laurore, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology, is studying the public memory and history of slavery, particularly its curation in museums, monuments, memorials, and archaeological sites.
Inspiring Figures in Black History (Video)
Three students from the College highlight individuals including journalist and activist Ida B. Wells, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, and John Edmonstone, a taxidermist who trained Charles Darwin.
Unearthing the Secrets of an Ancient Greek City
Classical archaeologist and architectural historian Mantha Zarmakoupi has spent the past four summers excavating the ruins of a city council building at the center of Teos in western Türkiye, in collaboration with the Teos Archaeological Project of Ankara University.
Talking with Conclave’s Mike Jackman, C’85
The film, which Jackman produced, has been nominated for Best Picture and seven other Oscars. (It already took home Best Picture at the BAFTAs.) Fellow Penn Arts & Sciences alums Fred Berger, C’03, and Marc Platt, C’79, also received Best Picture bids for “A Complete Unknown” and “Wicked,” respectively.
A Dialogue about the Past and Future of Democracy
Ben Talks NYC, which took place this year at the Times Center in front of a crowd of 270 people, featured Jeffrey Green and Michele Margolis of Political Science, Donovan Schaefer of Religious Studies, and Sophia Rosenfeld of History.
Print Edition
Fall/Winter 2024
This issue features leaders in the climate change fight, a look at the storied career of David Wallace and the evolution of Penn Arts & Sciences under Dean Fluharty, Quaker Quotes, a “genius grant,” and so much more.
Popular Stories
Unearthing the Secrets of an Ancient Greek City
Classical archaeologist and architectural historian Mantha Zarmakoupi has spent the past four summers excavating the ruins of a city council building at the center of Teos in western Türkiye, in collaboration with the Teos Archaeological Project of Ankara University.
Among the Elephants
Sixth-year Anthropology PhD student Rebecca Winkler has spent more than a decade documenting the lives of elephants and Indigenous people who co-exist in the forests of Thailand.
A Semester of Mentoring
Alums representing media and technology, film production, investment banking, and more offer advice to undergrads at mentoring meals, roundtables, and coffee breaks.
Bob Dylan as Modern-Day Prophet
In his new book, political theorist Jeffrey Green takes a unique view of the famous musician.
Penn Arts & Sciences in the News
Slate
The Ascendance of the Book Ladder
February 22, 2025
Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Cinema and Media Studies Shannon Mattern describes the appeal of this type of ladder. “You not only have to use your hands to turn the page, but in this case you have to get down off the ladder, physically slide the thing—your whole body has to move. It’s kind of like a scaling up of the analog engagement with the book.”
Fast Company
Is Free Will Freeing? Here’s Why the Freedom of Choice is a Trap in the Modern Era
February 22, 2025
Sophia Rosenfeld, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, offers five key insights from her new book, The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life, including how having choices makes us feel free and how having so many choices can have negative repercussions.
The New York Times
Archaeologists Find a Pharaoh’s Tomb, the First Since King Tut’s, Egypt Says
February 21, 2025
Josef Wegner, Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, discusses the importance of the discovery. “It really cements the importance of Hatshepsut in anchoring the Valley of the Kings going forward,” he says. Hatshepsut took the thrown after the death of her husband Thutmose II.
Business Insider
I Tried a New App that Locked Me Out of Social Media Until I Went for a Walk
February 10, 2025
Melissa Hunt, Associate Director of Clinical Training, said such tools might be effective initially “but overall, technology solutions to technology problems are always going to be inherently problematic.”