Megan Robb Named Julie and Martin Franklin Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

Megan Robb, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, has been named Julie and Martin Franklin Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. Robb is an accomplished scholar of South Asian Islam, with a particular focus is on the history of interpretative communities and literary publics.  Her first monograph, Print and the Urdu Public: Muslims, Newspapers, and Urban Life, 1900-1950, is under contract with Oxford University Press. She has also recently co-edited a volume of essays entitled Muslims Against the Muslim League: Critiques of the Idea of Pakistan with Cambridge University Press and a special issue for the Journal of Royal Asiatic Society entitled “Urban Emotions in South Asia.” Her next book project will focus on youth in public life in South Asia in the late colonial and early independence period.

Julie and Martin Franklin are both ardent supporters of Penn who established this chair in 2008 to recognize and retain eminent scholars and professors who demonstrate outstanding performance in their field. Martin Franklin, C'86, is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the Jarden Corporation and has served on the boards of Promotora de Informaciones S.A., Kenneth Cole Productions, and GLG Inc. Julie Franklin, C'87, currently serves on Penn's Social Policy and Practice Overseers Board and the Trustees' Council of Penn Women.

Arts & Sciences News

Michael Jones-Correa and Sophia Rosenfeld Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

They join three others from the University of Pennsylvania, selected as part of the Academy’s mission to convene leaders from “every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together.”

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Eva Del Soldato Awarded 2025-26 Rome Prize

She joins Sean Burkholder, of the Weitzman School of Design, and just 33 others in receiving the prestigious honor from the American Academy in Rome.

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Mark Trodden named Dean of Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences

A distinguished physicist and accomplished academic leader, Trodden will assume the role on June 1.

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Two Penn Arts & Sciences Faculty Named Guggenheim Fellows

Marcia Chatelain, Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, and Matthew Levendusky, Professor of Political Science, are among 198 in the U.S. and Canada selected for this 100th class of fellows.

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Penn ATLAS Shares 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

The team, which includes Joseph Kroll, Evelyn Thomson, Elliot Lipeles, Dylan Rankin, and Brig Williams from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is part of an expansive collaboration studying high-energy collisions from the Large Hadron Collider.

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2025 School of Arts & Sciences Teaching Awards Announced

Penn Arts & Sciences annually recognizes faculty, lecturers, and graduate students for their exemplary teaching. This year’s honorees come from 10 departments and two programs.

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