( ) This Education
What happens when you unleash an entrepreneurship evangelist on an education school? Meet Doug Lynch, the vice dean bent on making Penn GSE a hub for social entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and next-generation educational reform.
When West Went East
Victor Mair first encountered the Bronze Age mummies of China’s Tarim Basin 23 years ago. He—and others—have been trying to figure out what those people were doing there ever since.
A Shelf Full of Resolutions
Five Penn authors offer challenges and inspiration to readers seeking better self-control, wiser conversations, age-appropriate outfits, meaningful reading, and wholesome eating.
PENN 2.0
The University is now active on all manner of social networks—and students, faculty, and staff members are even inventing new ones of their own.
Homecoming 2010
Photos from Penn’s fall celebration of arts & culture, football, and fun.
Bones Beneath the Tracks
In the summer of 1832, 57 Irish laborers died suddenly while building the first railroad in Pennsylvania. Alumnus Bill Watson and a host of other Penn people have been trying to find out what really happened. And they’re getting close.
Spreading Hope and Music
Through music and a grassroots organization for girls,
ethnomusicology grad student Jennifer Kyker is making things happen in Zimbabwe.
On Hearths, Ancient and Modern
In which the author takes a break from the rigors of her own ethnographic research in France’s Dordogne region to visit with eminent Penn archaeologist Harold Dibble as he plumbs the mysteries of early human and Neandertal behavior—and plots his next gourmet meal.
More Light
“I think that what is changing about my writing is my willingness to go darker so that I can come out with more light,” says memoirist and fiction writer Beth Kephart C’82. In her new novel, set in Philadelphia during the Centennial, a young woman contemplates suicide following the accidental death of her twin.
Notes to a Younger Mother
In her new book, writer-mom and autism activist Susan Senator C’84 G’85 shows how to make the most of the unexpected life.
Paternity Test
Between Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, which Founding Father did the most—by far—to promote and shape the future of public education in America? (Hint: He also published a periodical with the same name as this one.)
A Double Reward
A program at the School of Veterinary Medicine provides free surgery and follow-up care to shelter dogs with mammary tumors and matches them with willing owners, while also collecting data that could advance treatment of human breast cancers.
Art History Lessons
An exhibit at the Arthur Ross Gallery offers a revealing look at some treasures of the University’s art collection—but a walk around campus works, too.
When Wax Was Hot
Four decades ago, a Penn-dominated rock band was poised to take the world by storm. What happened?
Touching the Virtual Frontier
If you’ve never been stung by imaginary gunfire, sent a texture sample by email, or had a sleeve teach you how to move your arm, Katherine Kuchenbecker’s Haptics Lab is a Pandora’s box of tactile trickery and strange sensations.
Desperately Seeking Blank
Think it’s easy to turn off your mind when you’re playing baseball? Think again, says a former Major Leaguer (and Penn Quaker standout).
Finishing School
The Penn Fellows Program aims to bring mid-career faculty into full bloom.
Common Bonds
A dinner celebrating the newest class of Penn Athletic Hall of Famers featured laughter, tears, and a demonstration of the true meaning of the word teammate.
Alumni Weekend 2010
Alumni Weekend, 2010: Our annual photo essay.
Alone Together
Vivian Seltzer has spent decades developing and testing a theory that she believes is “the first roadmap through adolescence.”
The History Buffer
Stephen Fried says we have Fred Harvey to thank for retail chains, Western tourism, and our model of exemplary customer service. He also suggests that his just-published book about the man and the “railroad hospitality empire” he embodied represents a new nonfiction genre: history buffed.
Vendor Defender
Street Vendor Project Director Sean Basinski can tell you all about the mouth-watering offerings available from New York’s food trucks and carts—and even more about the daily struggles faced by the immigrant men and women who operate them.
Degrees of Happiness
In Penn’s intensive one-year master’s program in applied positive psychology, working professionals from more than a dozen countries and a staggering range of fields come to learn how to “add to the tonnage of happiness in the world.”
The (Continuing) Tale of Troy
Ever since Heinrich Schliemann “discovered” Troy in the 1870s, archaeologists have searched for proof that Homer’s Iliad was based on historical fact. Penn Museum Deputy Director C. Brian Rose, who has led excavations at the site for more than two decades, may have found it.