Spring/Summer 2018

In this issue of OMNIA, our cover story, “A Virtual World for an Ancient Society,” explores a digital world that recreates and populates pre-Columbian agricultural societies. In “Prospecting Playbills,” we follow researchers as they create an archive of centuries-old playbills, and in "Breaking the Bank," an economist discusses the hot topic of cryptocurrency. It's all part of how Penn Arts and Sciences is using technology as a means to advance knowledge.

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Features

Breaking the Bank
Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Professor of Economics, discusses the potential—and pitfalls—of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Finding Macro-Level Answers in Microorganisms

Mecky Pohlschröder, Professor and Undergraduate Chair of the Department of Biology, on gaining insights into the workings of microscopic ecosystems.

Passion, Persistence, and Payoff

Angela Duckworth, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology, explores why perseverance matters.

A Virtual World for an Ancient Society

Clark Erickson, Professor of Anthropology, has made a career of studying humans’ effect on their physical landscapes—past and present.

Prospecting Playbills

Michael Gamer, Professor of English, and Scott Enderle, Digital Humanities Specialist at Penn Libraries, are designing a database to classify historical playbills.

Movers & Quakers

Reading Is Fundamental

Jennifer Egan, C’85, sees fiction as a cultural artifact.

In the Classroom

Thirteen Ways of Looking at America

OMNIA visits a history course that covers challenging moments in American history.

Insomnia

Three Questions: Carmen Maria Machado

Carmen Maria Machado, Writer-in-Residence at Kelly Writers House, combines science fiction, horror, folk tales, and pop culture references in stories that are utterly modern and unabashedly focused on female experience. Her debut collection, Her Body and Other Parties, was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award.