SAS Plan for Faculty Diversity and Excellence

As part of its Action Plan for Faculty Diversity and Excellence, the University of Pennsylvania sets forth principles that must also shape the future of the faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences. If a great university must indeed “encompass a universe of backgrounds and experiences, ideas and ideologies, theories and perspectives,” a vibrant School of Arts and Sciences, too, by definition gains its strength from such breadth, which informs everything we do in both research and education. As a school we value and are deeply committed to diversity in all of its dimensions. Diversity embraces race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, nationality, and age, those categories that define who we are as individuals, but it also extends to our commitments and beliefs, including religion and politics, and our work as scholars, practicing a multiplicity of different approaches to the creation and dissemination of knowledge.

As our own society is changing, the School must keep pace with that world, while it is also committed to being an agent of change, opening up new perspectives and providing the benefits of an innovative liberal arts education to a wider and ever-changing group of talented students. Because SAS is at the heart of this University, we believe we should lead the way in Penn’s overall mission to further diversify the faculty. We have the opportunity not only to make an impact on Penn’s intellectual community right now, but to help transform the academy for years to come.

View and/or download the complete SAS Plan for Faculty Diversity and Excellence in PDF format.

Arts & Sciences News

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University of Pennsylvania, Neubauer Family Foundation, and Philadelphia Police Department Partner to Support Police Leadership Education

The first-of-its-kind graduate degree in the U.S. for police leaders launches this fall at the School of Arts & Sciences.

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Marisa C. Kozlowski Named Next Associate Dean for the Natural Sciences

Kozlowski, who joined the Penn faculty in 1997, succeeds Mark Trodden, who transitions to the Dean of Penn Arts & Sciences on June 1.

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One Fourth Year, One Alum Receive 2025 Hertz Fellowship

Eric Tao, C’25, Gr’25 (left), and Suraj Chandran, C’23, were awarded the honor, part of a group of 19 fellows selected this year. Each one receives five years of funding toward a doctoral program.

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Benjamin Nathans Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction

Nathans, Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History, won for his book “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement.”

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Mark Devlin Elected to National Academy of Sciences

He joins three others from Penn to receive the honor this year, all recognized for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

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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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