March | April 2018
Volume 116, No. 4
FEATURES
Everyone’s Song
Penn’s vibrant a cappella community contains a multitude of musical styles and cultural influences. Take a listen.
By Molly Petrilla
An Odyssey for Our Time
Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s epic has become a surprise sensation, a once-in-a-generation transformation of how English readers encounter one of the most iconic characters in all of literature. Fellow classics professor (and Odyssey aficionado) Peter Struck has some questions for her.
Edited by Trey Popp
Confronting Denial
The four Gormans are all Penn alumni and all involved professionally in the mental-health field. In a new book, two of them—daughter Sara and father Jack—take a careful look at the psychological factors driving science denialism and how to counter them. Hint: more data isn’t the answer.
By JoAnn Greco
The Judges’ Lawyer
In successfully defending the irascible Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase—aka “Old Bacon Face”—against impeachment, Joseph Hopkinson C1786 G1789 helped set a high bar for removal from office and establish the principle of judicial independence.
By Dennis Drabelle
DEPARTMENTS
From the Editor | Song singers and siren songs.
Letters | Mental-health history, Mungermen memories, and more.
Views
Notes from the Undergrad | A place at Penn.
Alumni Voices | Faith and works in Puerto Rico.
Elsewhere | “Like the second coming. Or an alien invasion.”
Expert Opinion | Phantom at 30.
Gazetteer
Lesson | “Existential Despair”: Rilke, Burroughs, My Little Pony, and more.
Neuroscience | Can brain imaging help heal extreme partisanship?
Governance | Penn cuts ties with Steve Wynn C’63.
Archaeology | New finding pushes grape-wine production back to 6000 BCE.
Economics | Wage stagnation linked to dearth of employers.
Politics | Annenberg’s Al Felzenberg on his William F. Buckley bio.
Engineering | $27 million to develop “teams of robots” for US Army.
Sports | More the merrier for men’s basketball; lacrosse seeks redemption.
Arts
Painting | The colorful revelations of Natvar Bhavsar GFA’65.
Arts Administration | Settlement Music School CEO Helen Eaton C’93.
Books | How to know? Understanding Understanding.
Books | George Thomas Gr’75 on Frank Furness’s 19th-century modernism.
Alumni
Rick Smith C’83 is helping reclaim Buffalo’s riverfront with Silo City.
Katlyn Grasso W’15 is empowering “women who want to take over the world.”
Doris LeStourgeon GEd’56 piloted a pioneering educational experiment.
Hank Aberman C’60 G’62 is an unlikely—but successful!—librettist.
Old Penn | First Fling.