2022 Klein Family Social Justice Grants Awarded

Penn Arts & Sciences has awarded three Klein Family Social Justice grants to faculty-led projects that will contribute to the achievement of social justice through research and teaching, and through community engagement rooted in the arts and sciences.

The three projects are:

Personalized, Accelerated Science Learning, led by Lori Flanagan-Cato, Associate Professor of Psychology. This project will provide a rigorous evaluation of the experiential learning program, Everyday Neuroscience, in which Penn undergraduates work with students in a Philadelphia high school. The results will better define the program’s beneficial components and sustained academic value, and will guide revisions and scaling-up of the course.

Free State Slavery and Bound Labor: Pennsylvania, led by Sarah Barringer Gordon, Professor of History and Arlin M. Adams Professor of Constitutional Law, and Kathleen Brown, David Boies Professor of History. This project will create and launch a course examining slavery in Pennsylvania, where the effects of race-based bondage have long been underestimated. Undergraduate students will explore the legal history of enslavement and resistance to bondage through legal materials, newspapers, and other primary documents.     

Kitchen Science: A Platform for Inclusive and Accessible Outreach, led by Arnold Mathijssen, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy. The project will develop a series of outreach events, where students from underrepresented backgrounds learn basic scientific concepts using inexpensive tools and materials in the kitchen. Every month, a distinguished guest speaker (a chef, scientist, or R&D specialist) will present about their expertise, from chocolate to bubbly drinks, in an online video. These will be followed by workshops dedicated to disadvantaged students at local Philadelphia high schools.

Klein Family Social Justice Grants are an annual grant program offering awards for academic activities that use the arts and sciences to contribute to positive social change in the United States, including in Penn’s engagement with its surrounding community. They are intended to stimulate scholarship and education on topics of anti-racism, inclusion, diversity, and social justice, and to promote additional opportunities for community engagement.