Good Grief
Five years after his two teenage children were killed by a drunk driver, Colin Campbell C’91 is finding new ways to grieve—while helping others deal with bereavement through his new book, support groups, and a one-man show he calls the “feel-bad story of the year.”
Creating Civil Citizens
Penn’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program aims to foster dialogue, civic engagement, community service, and wellness—and both students and faculty are enthusiastically signing on. But the program’s contours can be murky, and its role in bridging campus divisions remains a work in progress.
The Making of Things
Over a decade-long photographic journey, Christopher Payne GAr’96 has explored the world of American manufacturing, from pianos to jet engines, pencils to 3D-printed rockets.
We Should Be Friends
For the past 20 years, Aaron Karo W’01 and Matt Ritter L’05 have been part of a unique friendship tradition called “Man of the Year” with their childhood buddies. Now, the fellow comedians and writers have launched a podcast of the same name to encourage other men to create, maintain, and grow their own friendships.
Admissions in Transition
From test-optional applications, to questions about ChatGPT, to the Supreme Court’s new limitations on considering race and ethnicity, college admissions are in flux. Admissions Dean Whitney Soule dissects the current state of play and how prospective applicants can navigate it.
The Chip Zien Show
His acclaimed starring turn in Harmony was cut short by the harsh economics of Broadway musicals, but the theater, film, and TV stalwart is still looking ahead after seven decades in the spotlight.
Shattering Violence, Shimmering Prizes
Emily Wilson’s new translation of the Iliad brings the strange and brutal beauty of Homer’s world into the English-speaking now.
Chasing Justice
As a young federal civil rights prosecutor, Jared Fishman C’99 investigated the police killing of a Black New Orleans resident in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Now, after writing a book on what he calls “one of the most egregious cases of police misconduct in recent American history,” he’s tackling criminal justice reform on a broader scale.
In the Balance
Four alumni authors consider, then dismantle, the myths that govern how we choose our careers and that keep us stuck in unhealthy patterns from childhood to retirement.
Risk and Reward
Rajiv Shah M’02 GrW’05 heads the Rockefeller Foundation and has worked for the Gates Foundation and in government on critical issues in public health and international development. In his new book, Big Bets, he shows how embracing smart criticism—from Bill Gates, for one—and never settling for merely incremental change can pay off.
Homecoming 2023
Our annual photo gallery. Plus: the Alumni Awards of Merit and citations.
Fake Simple
Amanda Shulman C’15 has earned national acclaim with Her Place Supper Club, where she’s also bending stubborn industry standards around life balance and labor compensation. It all began with a jolt to Penn’s off-campus social scene.
“A Place I Could Be Myself”
The Penn Women’s Center celebrates five decades of providing advocacy, advising, refuge, counseling, company, and tea. From its origins in the struggle against campus sexual violence, the center has evolved to tackle a range of concerns, from wellness to combating racism. The latest debate: Is its name, meant to be welcoming, too restrictive or exclusionary at a time when gender itself is contested?
Another Realm
New photographs by Arthur Drooker C’76 explore the elusive moments before dusk when “vivid colors paint the sky with magic and mystery.”
Time Stretcher
From swinging standards to avant garde nonconformism, Penn music professor, jazz drummer, and shapeshifting composer Tyshawn Sorey has won acclaim for “awesomely confounding” music whose “vulnerable virtuosity” can “open different portals in your depth of feeling and imagination.”
The PZ Project
From picture books to The Poet X, Penn Libraries are expanding and diversifying their holdings of books for young readers.
American Science’s Promoter-in-Chief
The great-grandson of a famous founder (of the nation and this University) and “boyhood’s friend” of the president of the Confederacy, educational reformer and onetime Penn professor Alexander Dallas Bache made his own reputation by championing the professionalization of American science in the mid-1800s.
Mann in the Middle
Michael E. Mann has been a central figure in the battle for the environment since the “hockey stick” graph made him a target for climate change deniers 25 years ago. Now on Penn’s faculty and heading the Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media, he’s fending off a new generation of “inactivists” comprised of climate change deflectors on the right and doomists on the left to get out the message that it’s still within our power to save the planet.
Ode to Ira
To mark the Netter Center’s 30th anniversary, founding director Ira Harkavy C’70 Gr’79 trumpets the past and the future of Penn’s strategies to revitalize West Philadelphia—and alumni return to campus to tout Harkavy as an inspiration in the field of university–community engagement.
Birthday Blooms
A springtime celebration of the 90th year—and recent name tweak—of Penn’s Morris Arboretum and Gardens.
Alumni Weekend 2023
Our annual photo essay.
Alien Minds, Immaculate Bullshit, Outstanding Questions
College in the age of ChatGPT.
Basketball In His Blood
Thirty years after starting the basketball juggernaut AND1, Seth Berger C’89 WG’93 continues to live and breathe hoops—as a father of three (plus a guardian to five Nigerian brothers), a venture capitalist affiliated with the Philadelphia 76ers, and the longtime head coach of a suburban Philadelphia boarding school team that his AND1 cofounder calls the “Duke of high school basketball.”
An Archaeologist Walks into a Bar …
Unearthing the world’s oldest tavern while reconstructing daily life in ancient southern Mesopotamia.