Humanities
Four Ways Penn Arts & Sciences Is Looking to the Future
With “SAS Horizons: Pathways for a Changing World,” the School charts a course to navigate challenging waters.
The Enduring Legacy of Rumi
In a new book, Jamal J. Elias, Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Islamic History and Visual Culture, explores the poet’s impact.
Ben Talks NYC in Photos
Nearly 200 alums came out to hear Dean Mark Trodden and a panel of faculty experts—Zachary Lesser from English, Rahul Mukerjee from Cinema & Media Studies, and Emily Wilson from Classical Studies—discuss what Homer, Shakespeare, and Bollywood can tell us about culture and history.
Is Love at First Sight Possible?
According to a new paper from Professor of Philosophy Errol Lord, the answer is yes—if you follow the theory of Romantic Kantianism.
Perspectives and Insight on Venezuela
In front of a packed crowd, four Penn Arts & Sciences experts—from political science, history, and economics—discussed unfolding current events. They also touched on how we got here and what it means going forward.
Literature and Medicine
An English course on narrative medicine invites students to look at poetry, novels, and essays that explore illness, disease—and, ultimately, what it means to be alive.
For Yezidi, Historic Images and Cultural Restoration
Marc Marín Webb, a PhD candidate in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, researched the images in the Penn Museum archives and brought them back to Yezidi communities.
When High-Tech Meets Handmade
With a passion for both handcrafted books and state-of-the-art technology, Emily Brooks, the new Associate Director of Digital Research in the Humanities at Penn’s Price Lab for Digital Humanities, is carving out a singular career.
2025 Year in Review
As December winds down, we revisit a dozen of our favorite Penn Arts & Sciences stories from the past year.
In Defense of Mariah Carey and Cassette Tapes
Fourth-year music PhD student Kwame Ocran sees cassettes—his current area of scholarship—as a mechanism to combat the feverish pace of music criticism in an age of 24-hour news cycles and digital streaming experiences.
Three Ways to Reframe Boredom
Lilith Todd, Stephen M. Gorn Family Assistant Professor of English, says we should shift how we think about being idle.
A Love Letter To Pop Music
The musical trio Professor Girlfriend, which includes Anna Weesner, Dr. Robert Weiss Professor of Music, bends genre and challenges boundaries with a new album, “My Mother In Love: The Summer Sessions.”
Research Roundup: Ocean “Build-up,” Digital Culture, and Birthright Citizenship
Recent work from faculty in our History, Biology, and Sociology departments.
ASAM Names New Faculty Director
Bakirathi Mani will lead the Asian American Studies Program alongside co-director Fariha Khan.
Ancient Inspiration
A book of essays edited by Professor Mantha Zarmakoupi and Loughborough University’s Simon Richards dives into a historic movement focused on recentering how we think about ecological concerns and the built environment.