60-Second Lectures | Fall 2024 Roundup (Video)
Topics ranged from social learning and the importance of reproductive health to the Civil Rights movement, the city of Philadelphia, and whether dance can exist without music.
For more than 20 years, the 60-second lectures have been a Penn Arts & Sciences tradition. This year, the Fall series took place during New Student Orientation (NSO), with faculty centering their minute—plus or minus—around topics important to undergraduates starting a new phase in their lives at Penn.
Associate Professor of Biology Erol Akçay discussed social learning, our willingness and ability as humans to learn from each other, and Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Sociology Letícia J. Marteleto talked about why reproductive health matters. William Sturkey, an associate professor in the Department of History, focused his time on redemptive suffering and the Civil Rights movement. Paula Fomby, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Social Sciences, and Mary Channen Caldwell, Associate Professor of Music, rounded out the quintet; Fomby spoke about three things the new students and the city of Philadelphia have in common, and Caldwell covered whether dance can exist without music.
Watch each of the 60-second lectures below. And see photos from the series and all of NSO, including the Exploration Expo, here.
Erol Akçay, Associate Professor of Biology
“Social Learning is a Double-Edged Sword”
Letícia J. Marteleto, Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Sociology
“Reproductive Health Matters”
William Sturkey, Associate Professor of History
“Redemptive Suffering: How the Civil Rights Movement Won”
Paula Fomby, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Social Sciences
“What Do You and Philadelphia Have in Common?”
Mary Channen Caldwell, Associate Professor of Music
“Can You Dance in Silence?”
View the complete archive of 60-Second Lectures featuring faculty, students, and alumni, at https://www.sas.upenn.edu/60-second