2016
A Meeting of Minds: Visiting Russian Scholars Interface with Penn Arts and Sciences Faculty
This past February the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, together with the Perry World House, hosted Russian American Relations in Historical Perspective: A Symposium. The public event, designed to examine Russian-American relationships amidst ongoing international crises, such as the violence and destabilization in Ukraine and Syria, drew on expertise from a host of historians, political scientists, legal scholars, and cultural historians.
Penn Arts and Sciences Faculty Receive University Teaching Awards
Seven members of the Penn Arts and Sciences faculty are recipients of University-wide teaching awards:LINDBACK AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED TEACHINGKaren Detlefsen, Associate Professor of PhilosophyJoshua Klein, Professor of Physics and AstronomyEmily Steiner, Professor of EnglishDaniel Swingley, Professor of Psychology
College Announces Graduation Speakers
Bill Shore, C’77, founder and CEO of Share Our Strength, and Laura Sorice, C’16, will speak at this year’s graduation ceremony for the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts and Sciences. The event will take place on Sunday, May 15, at 6:30 pm, at Franklin Field.
Penn Fels Policy Research Initiative Announces Interdisciplinary Grants
The Fels Policy Research Initiative has announced five inaugural collaborative grants for as much as $15,000 each, designed to further interdisciplinary partnerships. Three of the research projects involve one or more Penn Integrates Knowledge, or PIK, professors, a group of Penn academics committed to working across different disciplinary boundaries.
Justin McDaniel Works to Build Digital Library of Ancient Thai Manuscripts
Justin McDaniel, professor and chair of the religious studies department, along with the National Library of Laos, has launched the Digital Library of Northern Thai Manuscripts, bringing thousands of ancient manuscripts out of monastic temples and making them available as open source material online.
Penn Arts and Sciences Names 2016 Dean’s Scholars
Penn Arts and Sciences has named 20 students from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Liberal and Professional Studies, and the Graduate Division as Dean’s Scholars. This honor is presented annually to students who exhibit exceptional academic performance and intellectual promise. The 2016 Dean’s Scholars were formally recognized as part of the Levin Family Dean’s Forum on March 30. COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Al Filreis Wins a Coursera Outstanding Educator Award
Al Filreis, Kelly Family Professor of English, Director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, and Faculty Director of Kelly Writers House, is the recipient of an inaugural Coursera Outstanding Educator Award.Filreis was honored with the Transformation Award, given to an instructor who has contributed the most to the platform’s vision of enabling anyone, anywhere to transform their life through its massive open online courses, or MOOCs.
Vanessa Ogle Selected for American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
Vanessa Ogle, Julie and Martin Franklin Assistant Professor of History, has been selected for a 2016-2017 Fellowship from The American Council of Learned Societies. Ogle, who specializes in modern Europe, historical globalization, political economy and imperialism, and colonialism in Europe and the Middle East, was chosen from among 1,100 applicants who underwent a multi-stage peer-review process for the 69 fellowships.
Cullen Blake Helps to Build Next-generation Planet Finder
Cullen Blake, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, is part of a team selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Astrophysics Division to build a $10 million, cutting-edge instrument to detect planets orbiting stars outside our solar system.
Researcher Serves as a Thought Leader on Russian Foreign Policy
Mitchell Orenstein's research sits at the intersection of comparative politics and global public policy, using a problem-driven research approach to ask big, policy-relevant questions when it comes to the happenings in and around Central and Eastern Europe.
Why Voters Ignore Local Politics
In his new book The Increasingly United States, Associate Professor of Political Science Daniel Hopkins says American federalism was based on the idea that voters’ primary political loyalties would be with the states—but that that idea has become outdated.
Dean Fluharty Among Presenters at Environmental Humanities Event
A collective of faculty and students, with other scholars, artists and scientists near campus and beyond, are working together in the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities not only to raise awareness but also to increase engagement in the emerging field of environmental humanities. This spring the PPEH 2015-16 “Curriculum for the New Normal” series of events continues with lectures, forums, and field trips to address global-warming topics.
Two College Seniors Win 2016 President’s Engagement Prize
College seniors Vaishak Kumar and Kriya Patel have been named recipients of the 2016 President’s Engagement Prizes at the University of Pennsylvania, along with Penn Nursing’s Melanie Mariano.
Chemists Lay Groundwork for Countless New, Cleaner Uses of Methane
A research team led by Daniel J. Mindiola, Presidential Term Professor of Chemistry, has demonstrated the potential to use methane not as a fossil fuel but as a versatile chemical building block with which to make more complex molecules, such as pharmaceuticals and other value-added substances. The reaction also offers a way of taking advantage of the properties of methane without releasing greenhouse gases.
Melissa Sanchez Studies Sexuality by Looking at Renaissance Love Lyrics
Melissa Sanchez, associate professor of English, is using the language and history of 16th- and 17th-century poetry to examine issues of gender, sexuality, and romance in the past and modern-day. Sanchez, a core faculty member of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies, says that reading Renaissance texts enriches understanding of both the historical insights about the period when the literature was written and about current cultural conditions.
The Master of Environmental Studies Program Celebrates 20 Years at Penn
The Master of Environmental Studies (MES) recently celebrated its 20th anniversary at Penn. Over the past two decades, MES has championed a multi-disciplinary approach to environmental work and research, and has trained some of the most influential people in the field today. A combination of core sciences, policy knowledge, and hands-on application prepare students to tackle the complex issues facing our natural world.
From Egypt to Philadelphia, the Journey of the Penn Museum’s Sphinx
When the massive sphinx arrived at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia in 1913, it was eclipsed by another historic event in the city—opening day of baseball’s World Series, with the Philadelphia Athletics hosting the New York Giants. So when the ship carrying the 13-ton artifact from the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis docked at the Delaware River waterfront on Oct. 7, 1913, no workers were there to unload it.
Penn Professor Wins Top British Liquid Crystal Society Award
Randall D. Kamien, Vicki and William Abrams Professor in the Natural Sciences in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has won the G. W. Gray Medal of the British Liquid Crystal Society for outstanding contributions to liquid crystal science.
PIK Professor Receives Teaching Award
Robert Ghrist, Andrea Mitchell University Professor of Math and Electrical and Systems Engineering, has received the 2016 James P. Crawford Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics from the Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware Section of the Mathematical Association of America (EPADEL).
Kathleen Brown Re-thinks Gender and Race in ‘Undoing Slavery’
In 1981, while teaching “Ages of Man” to 9th graders at an all-girls high school, Kathleen Brown noted the irony. Brown, now a professor of history, says that at the time she felt poorly equipped to redesign the course, which focused on political, military, and economic history from a global perspective.
Political Activist Behind a Desk: Camille Z. Charles
Camille Z. Charles believes that where you live influences everything that happens to you and sets you up for the rest of your life.Before joining the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1998, Charles, a scholar of racial inequality, was conducting research on minority students at elite universities. She found that those who came from segregated neighborhoods weren’t faring as well academically as their white peers.
Raising Age of Majority Doesn’t Affect Teen Crime Rates
In the criminal justice world, there’s an ongoing debate about whether to increase the age of majority, the point at which an adolescent can no longer be tried in the juvenile legal system and instead must be tried as an adult. Advocates of raising this threshold say it’s unfair to process juveniles in the adult system because their brains are not fully mature. Critics of the idea say it may lead to increased recidivism among adolescents.
Asif Agha Is President-Elect of Society for Linguistic Anthropology
Asif Agha, professor of anthropology, has been voted president-elect of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology (SLA), a section of the American Anthropological Association. The SLA is the premiere society for the interdisciplinary study of how language shapes social life in the world.
Machine Learning Can Help Prevent Repeat Domestic Violence Offenses
Richard Berk, a professor of criminology and statistics in Penn Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School, and Susan B.
Seven From College Win Thouron Awards
Four Penn Arts and Sciences seniors and three alumni have received Thouron Awards to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom. The scholarship recipients are:
Barbara Savage Featured in Two Oxford University Lectures
Barbara Savage, a historian and the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Head of the Department of Africana Studies, was recently featured twice as a guest lecturer at Oxford University. Her lectures, "Professor Merze Tate: Diplomatic Historian, Cosmopolitan Woman" and "Creating a New Field: Black Women's Intellectual History," were followed by short responses from scholars from a variety of perspectives.
Senior and Alumna Awarded 2016 Gates Cambridge Scholarships
A senior and an alumna of the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn have both won 2016 Gates Cambridge Scholarships to pursue graduate degrees at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Lucia Calthorpe, C'16, and Morgan Seag, C'08, are among 35 United States citizens selected and are the 29th and 30th Penn recipients since the scholarships were established in 2001.
Scholarship Honoring Beau Biden Will Benefit Students at Penn
The University of Pennsylvania and the Tau Chapter of Psi Upsilon have announced the creation of the Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III Memorial Scholarship to provide financial support to an undergraduate in the College of Arts and Sciences who would otherwise be unable to meet the cost of a Penn education.
PIK Professors Call Attention to the Use of Race in Human Genetic Research
Dorothy Roberts and Sarah Tishkoff have coauthored a perspective piece published this week in the journal Science that calls for an end to the use of genetic concepts of race in biological research.
Aviv Nevo Appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor
Aviv Nevo has been named the University of Pennsylvania’s 17th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor, effective July 1, 2016. The announcement was made today by Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price.
Students Test Their Powers of Persuasion on Gun Control
It’s not easy to change people’s minds on political issues. That’s one of the lessons Diana Mutz, Samuel A. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication, wanted to impart to the undergraduates in her Media and Politics class. It’s even harder still when your tool for persuasion is a 30-second video.
Penn Arts and Sciences Offers New Major in Nutrition Science, Minor in Survey Research and Analytics
Beginning this semester, Penn Arts and Sciences is offering a new cross-school major in nutrition science and a new minor in survey research and data analytics.
Professor Receives Early Career Award
Lauren Sallan, assistant professor of earth and environmental science, has received the Stensiö Award, which is given to an early career researcher in early vertebrate palaeontology. Named after Swedish paleozoologist Erik Stensiö, the award recognizes the research and impact of a scholar within 10 years of receiving a Ph.D.
Tartaron Wins Archaeological Book of the Year Award
Thomas Tartaron, associate professor of classical studies, has won the Archaeological Institute of America’s James R. Wiseman Book Award for best archaeological book of the year, for Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World. The book takes a new look at maritime life among the Mycenaean Greeks from 1600 to 1100 B.C.
Deborah Thomas Named Editor-in-Chief of “American Anthropologist”
Deborah Thomas, an anthropology professor in Penn Arts and Sciences, has been named editor-in-chief of the American Anthropological Association’s flagship journal American Anthropologist, effective July 1. The position runs through June 30, 2020.
Robert Ghrist Brings Complicated Math to the Masses
Robert Ghrist, a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor with appointments in Penn Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, is working to make confusing mathematics topics understandable and interesting to non-mathematicians. The Andrea Mitchell University Professor, Ghrist studies a branch of math called algebraic topology, which revolves around understanding spaces and holes between items.
Researchers Show That Cubic Membranes Might Defend Sick Cells
It’s well known that, when cells are subject to stress, starvation, or viral infection, they sometimes adopt a cubic architecture. Unlike the simple spherical structure of membranes in healthy cells, these cubic membranes, or cubosomes, are very complex, forming an interconnected network of water channels resembling a “plumber’s nightmare.”Yet scientists still don’t have a clear understanding of how or why this happens.
2015
College of Arts & Sciences Annual Undergraduate Research Fair – October 24, 2015
Loraine Terrell, Alex Schein & Susan Ahlborn
Verkholantsev Wins Book Prize
Julia Verkholantsev, an associate professor of Slavic languages and literatures, has received the Early Slavic Studies Association Book Prize for The Slavic Letters of St. Jerome: The History of the Legend and Its Legacy, or, How the Translator of the Vulgate Became an Apostle of the Slavs.
AIDS Treatment Also Benefits Health, Economics of People Without HIV, Penn Study Shows
In rural Malawi, roughly 10 percent of the adult population has HIV. At the peak of the epidemic, in the 1990s and early 2000s, nearly everyone knew someone infected with or affected by the virus—what Hans-Peter Kohler, Frederick J. Warren Professor of Demography in Penn Arts and Sciences, describes as a generalized epidemic. Life expectancy dropped dramatically.
Researchers Find Antarctic Ice Sheet Has Been Frozen for 14 Million Years
In a new study in Scientific Reports, Penn researchers use an innovative technique to date one of Antarctica’s ancient lake deposits. They found that the deposits have remained frozen for at least the last 14 million years, suggesting that the surrounding region, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) has likewise remained intact.
Remembering Penn Arts and Sciences Overseers’ Chair David Silfen
David M. Silfen, C’66, chairman of Penn Arts and Sciences’ Board of Overseers and vice-chair of the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees, died on November 28.
Arts and Sciences Student a Finalist for National Physics Award
Xingting Gong, a 2015 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, was a finalist for this year’s LeRoy Apker Award, given by the American Physical Society to recognize outstanding achievements in physics by undergraduate students, and thereby provide encouragement to young physicists who have demonstrated great potential for future scientific accomplishment.
Linguists Document Philadelphia ‘Accent’ of American Sign Language
Meredith Tamminga, an assistant professor in linguistics and director of the University’s Language Variation and Cognition Lab, and Jami Fisher, a linguistics lecturer and Penn’s ASL Program coordinator, are working to document what they’re calling the Philadelphia "accent" of American Sign Language (ASL).“Philadelphia ASL historically, and I think anecdotally, has always been seen as a little different,” Fisher says. “We’re not really sure why.”
OMNIA: No Man's Land
The Continued Long-Term Consequences of Mass Incarceration in the United States
OMNIA: The Compass of the Mind
By Abigail MeiselBefore you set out for your next hike, make sure you bring sturdy boots, ample water, and an understanding of the cognitive underpinnings of your sense of direction.
