Volume 112, No. 4
FEATURES
Doomsday in the District
From the mayor’s desk to the principal’s office, from grassroots parent activists to teachers aiming to transform instruction and assessment, from the superintendent’s seat to a boldly reimagined vocational academy, here are the stories of Penn alumni trying to carry out the increasingly embattled mission of public education in Philadelphia. By Trey Popp, with additional reporting by Dave Zeitlin
Walking with Mandela
English professor Rita Barnard’s new collection of essays on Nelson Mandela examines the man behind the mythology. In an interview and an excerpt, she discusses Mandela, South Africa, and the challenges of a scholarly approach to a legend. By Samuel Hughes
John Jackson, Ethnography, and the Hebrew Israelites
In 1967, 400 African Americans followed a metal worker named Ben Carter from the South Side of Chicago to Israel. Anthropologist and PIK Professor John L. Jackson has spent the last decade documenting that group—and contemplating what they mean to his field. By Molly Petrilla
Lea’s Legacy
His library—preserved on Van Pelt’s sixth floor—is one of the great campus spaces, but there’s a lot more than that to know about historian and civic reformer Henry Charles Lea. By Dennis Drabelle
DEPARTMENTS
First Person: Essays
ALUMNI VOICES A life in art
ELSEWHERE Bridging time and geography, briefly
EXPERT OPINION “Dagit, you there, what have you been thinking?”
Gazetteer: News & Sports
ARCH reopens after $24.5 million makeover
Lost dynasty found at Penn Museum Egypt dig
Vagelos Scholar Chris Kampmeyer is helping design a safer stent
Victor Mair on forgetting how to write in Chinese
Bamboo bikes, bags, baskets, and more
New master plan in the works for historic Woodlands
Big goals for men’s lacrosse; Big 5 Hall of Famer Mike Jordan C’00
Arts
ART Demetrius Oliver GFA’04’s Canicular at the Print Center of Philadelphia
BOOKS William Ferris G’67 Gr’69 on The Storied South
BOOKS City of the Sellers. Engineering Philadelphia
BOOKS Richard Ellis C’59 on the mysterious—and endangered—beaked whales
BOOKS Six striking coastal residences. Houses of Maine
Alumni: Profiles
Emily Kramer-Golinkoff C’07 G’13 is not slowing down
Diana Craig Patch Gr’91 threaded Cleopatra’s Needle
Andy Slavitt C’88 W’88 helped save HealthCare.gov
Evan Malone C’99 aims to rebuild manufacturing at NextFab studio
Sir Paul Judge WG’73 is the City of London’s new sheriff in town
Abby Huntsman C’08 is a co-host on MSNBC’s The Cycle