Academics
There’s always something new going on at Penn’s four undergraduate schools and 12 graduate schools. Look here for information on upcoming academic initiatives, new classes and research conducted by professors and students.
Why online learning is the future
More than five-and-a-half million students representing nearly 200 million countries are enrolled in MOOCs offered by the Penn Online Learning Initiative.
Talking about TV at the Kelly Writers House
This year’s fourth annual Writing About TV program at the Kelly Writers House featured six speakers and macaroni and cheese.
Meet the Penn Design critic who snagged a MacArthur 'Genius Grant'
Mary Reid Kelley, a senior critic in Penn Design's Master of Fine Arts program, was just named a 2016 MacArthur Fellow.
Penn Medicine uses iPods to track concussion treatment
New research into the understanding and possible treatment of concussions has been uncovered at The University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, all with the help of some iPods.
One 'bad monk' may be the reason you've been getting so much listserv spam
College senior Ashley Stinnett is currently enrolled in two of the most unorthodox classes at Penn: Religious Studies 356, known colloquially as the “monk class,” and ”Wasting Time on the Internet.”
Here are all of the courses that double count next semester
Fulfilling your college requirements can be tough. Consider taking a class that double counts to take some strain off.
New guide suggests Ivy League has terrible viewpoint diversity
The Heterodox Academy Guide to Colleges recently rated America’s top 150 universities by the diversity of viewpoints on campus. The Ivy League scored poorly.
Wharton students can now take classes taught by other Wharton students
This semester, the Wharton Dean’s Undergraduate Advisory Board (WAB) is offering seminars in three areas: introduction to coding, financial modeling and design and Photoshop.
Penn's medical school uses active learning in its classes, too
The University of Vermont’s medical school just announced that it plans to become the first medical school to abolish lecture courses and replace them with at-home videos and "active-learning" classrooms.
Penn received $3.7 million to build a new center for mental health research
By the time current pre-med undergraduates attend medical school, they will be studying completely new primary health curricula, thanks to Penn's new Center for Integrated Behavioral Health in Primary Care.
Civic house lecturer pushes to acknowledge expertise outside of academia
“I speak as a practitioner who has stumbled, fallen and experimented with a lot of things”. Welcomed by a sea of applause, Nadinne Cruz stepped up onto the podium and greeted her audience, adding "it's a beautiful night" in Tagalog.
Antidepressants could delay Alzheimer's, according to Penn Prof.
Perelman School of Medicine professor Yvette Sheline studied the brains of people with a history of depression, but may have discovered another benefit to antidepressants.
A Penn study failed to find a link between reading fiction and improved social cognition
“I still have the feeling that reading is good, even thought we haven’t been able to prove this aspect scientifically,” one of the co-authors said.
PennSound's Peter Gizzi is a finalist for a major poetry award
In writing Archeophonics, Gizzi said he wanted to “bring back the cadences of the past."
A Penn study found a link between unpredictable schedules and stress
Unpredictable schedules can have negative impacts on the health of an individual working in the service sector.
Online digital access codes are 'the new, dangerous face of the textbook monopoly,' study says
Once a code is used, it cannot be reused by another student.
Inside Penn's new $24 million virtual science center
Penn was just awarded a $24 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a Science and Technology Center.
Finding your place at Penn when your academic program is a 'well-kept secret'
For 87 years Penn has offered a coordinated degree with the oldest art school and art museum in the country.
Annenberg tool measures how voters learn from presidential debates
The Annenberg Public Policy Center is teaming up with Internet Archive, a digital library with access to books, movies and archived web pages, to answer how news organizations cover the issues brought up in presidential debates.