The 30-Year Squat
Three decades ago a “ragtag army of squatter-minded poets” took possession of a modest cottage at 38th & Locust Walk and conjured by candlelight a vision of a “house for writers.” Today Kelly Writers House is a University institution that hosts a dizzying variety of classes, readings, and other events and sits at the center of a constellation of affiliated programs whose impact stretches around the globe. But in a lot of ways it hasn’t changed at all. Plus: ModPo’s story in The Classroom and the Crowd.
From Prank to Proud Honor
The man who made the spoons for the “Spoon men.”
Witness and Judge
In his first book, Presidential Professor of Law Shaun Ossei-Owusu—a self-described “dark-skinned, sneaker-wearing, hip-hop referencing, first-generation everything with an unmaskable New York accent” and scholar given to “big swings”—offers a wide-ranging, eye-opening account of a legal system that “distributes pain and privilege unequally.”
Hyper Text
Synthetic text extrusion. Virtual teaching assistants. Illusions of mastery. Silicon Socrates. Four years after the debut of ChatGPT, higher education is starting to look different.
Useful Advice
Emanuel’s rules for living: Eat Your Ice Cream.
Across the Great Divide
Dorothy Roberts on her parents in The Mixed Marriage Project.
Historian of the “Taken-for-Granted”
Whether probing the concept of common sense, mulling the role of expertise in a democracy, or examining how choice intersects with freedom, Sophia Rosenfeld is carving out new realms of cultural and intellectual history.
Who Will Own Your Digital Twin?
Law professor Jennifer Rothman is an expert in “the ways intellectual property law is employed to turn people into a form of property.” As we enter an era of deepfake videos, voice clones, and digital replicas of human beings, she worries that the United States Congress is on the cusp of a horrible mistake.
An Hour for the Constitution
“That’s the wonderful but really difficult part of freedom of speech.”
Pandemic Lessons
LDI panel looks for lessons from the pandemic.
Why We Choose What We Choose
Q&A with Annenberg’s Emily Falk on What We Value.
Penn’s Benjamin Nathans Wins Pulitzer
History professor Ben Nathans awarded Pulitzer in General Nonfiction.
Welcome to Despair
Through his unorthodox courses, religious studies professor Justin McDaniel is training Penn students how to immerse themselves in literature, disconnect from their phones, build lifelong bonds with classmates … and prepare for the inevitable emotional pain life will bring.
Rules of Engagement
Following a stint advising the US Department of Defense on warfare’s AI-inflected future, political science professor and Perry World House director Michael C. Horowitz is back at the helm of Penn’s “home for global policy engagement.”
Roberts Among 2024 MacArthur Fellows
PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts is a 2024 MacArthur Fellow.
Demographic Winter Is Coming
Sounding the alarm about a shrinking world population.
Sanctions Imposed on Law Professor Amy Wax
Law professor Amy Wax sanctioned for “unprofessional conduct.”
Tyshawn Sorey Wins Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize for Tyshawn Sorey’s Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith).
Reproducing Racism
Interfaith Commemoration highlights Black–Jewish allyship.
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.”
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.
An Archaeologist Walks into a Bar …
Unearthing the world’s oldest tavern while reconstructing daily life in ancient southern Mesopotamia.
Fool Me Once
Fools rush in (and that’s OK!).
The French Connection
An old painting and a new book unlock a family’s origins.