Penn Arts & Sciences

The University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences forms the foundation of the scholarly excellence that has established Penn as one of the world's leading research universities. We teach students across all 12 Penn schools, and our academic departments span the reach from anthropology and biology to sociology and South Asian studies.

Members of the Penn Arts & Sciences faculty are leaders in creating new knowledge in their disciplines and are engaged in nearly every area of interdisciplinary innovation. They are regularly recognized with academia's highest honors, including membership in prestigious societies like the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, as well as significant prizes such as MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships.

The educational experience offered by Penn Arts & Sciences is likewise recognized for its excellence. The School's three educational divisions fulfill different missions, united by a broader commitment to providing our students with an unrivaled education in the liberal arts. The College of Arts and Sciences is the academic home of the majority of Penn undergraduates and provides 60 percent of the courses taken by students in Penn's undergraduate professional schools. The Graduate Division offers doctoral training to over 1,300 candidates in more than 30 graduate programs. And the College of Liberal and Professional Studies provides a range of educational opportunities for lifelong learners and working professionals.

 

 

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  • Publication
    How Physicists Get Started Thinking About New Phenomena 2025 [revised]
    (2025-04-12) Nelson, Philip C.
    Dimensional reasoning is a general-purpose tool to organize physical ideas, catch clerical errors, and even generate physical hypotheses. Although physicists give it a lot of lip service, few university students appear comfortable with it even after a full year of introductory Physics. The presentation outlines high points of dimensional reasoning, starting at high school level and moving up from there.
  • Dataset
    Philadelphia’s Trade with Saint Domingue/Haiti
    (2025-03-10) James Alexander Dun
    This dataset offers users access to nearly 4500 voyages between ports in the French colony of Saint Domingue (and then the independent nation of Haiti) and Philadelphia between 1789 and 1819. With some exceptions, each record includes the voyage’s starting and ending points, the date of departure and/or arrival, the name of the captain and vessel, the vessel’s rigging, registry, and tonnage, the merchants having an interest in the cargo, and the cargo’s makeup. The lion’s share of this information was derived from various sources in the records of the Philadelphia Customs House, housed at the National Archives Mid-Atlantic Regional Branch office in Philadelphia (Record Group 36). Within that collection, the dataset aggregates from the volumes of the Record of Arrivals and Clearances (E1057) and the boxes of Inward & Outward & Coastwise Manifests (E1059B). The data was also gathered from the volumes of the Outward books (E1126) housed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and the microfilmed records of the Philadelphia Health Officer’s Register (roll 0860) and Register of Vessels arrivals and clearances and Pilot’s Reports (roll 0864). For a number of records, further information was gleaned from manuscript sources at the Independence Seaport Museum (Dutilh Papers) and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Gillingham and Gratz collections). Portions of these data stand behind some of my published work treating the ways in which political discourse in the nascent United States was shaped by the unfolding events in Saint Domingue/Haiti. Further explorations and suggestions are introduced in this story map [https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/59e4b43f83124238bbd274a97bb54c33].
  • Publication
    An Iron Age in the Philippines?: A Critical Examination
    (1988) Eusebio Zamora Dizon
    Based on the limited evidence of iron artifacts and the associated pottery, it has been argued that a ’’Philippine Iron Age” began sometime between ca. 500 - 200 B.C. This study employing current archaeological and anthropological methods and metallurgical techniques analyzes the evidence for iron in the Philippines. It addresses whether the term "Iron Age” is viable in the Philippine context. The appearance of iron in certain areas of the Old World is surveyed to provide information on how iron technology developed and was adopted elsewhere. The presence of an Iron Age can imply a complex social organization which assumes a political machinery and economic institutions that deal with the control, distribution and redistribution of resources. Technology is also a system that operates within this complex whole, providing the science and technical knowledge to manipulate resources for the society. Philippine ethnographic and ethnohistorical records document that iron was supplied by Chinese traders in exchange for forest products, gold, salt, beads, etc. and that local blacksmiths processed iron for agricultural and household implements. Surpluses were traded to other groups, promoting the continuous diffusion of iron. Ten iron samples from the Philippine National Museum and 75 samples from the Guthe-Michigan collection were examined metallographically. Microhardness testing was done for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Descriptive and exploratory statistics were used to construct a generalized typology. The Guthe collection showed treatment variability in morphology, metallurgical treatment and function, projecting a pattern of regional variation among artifact types. The metallography suggested an improvement in iron technology over time. There are no indications of mass or standardized production of iron implements, suggesting local production on a small scale. This study concludes that there is no real Iron Age in the Philippines but that there were iron-using societies in certain areas beginning ca. 370 B.C. Finally, the study of iron technology constitutes a mechanism by which an improved understanding of the socio-cultural complexity of pre- and proto-historic cultures in the Philippines and Southeast Asia might be achieved.
  • Publication
    Swazi Indigenous Medicine: Beliefs, Practices, and Epistemes
    (2024) Aiyana Nosizwe Mate
    Swazi Indigenous medicine has long played a vital role in the culture and care practices of the Kingdom of Eswatini, and has evolved under the influence of processes such as colonialism, globalization, and the expansion of biomedicine. This thesis explores Swazi perspectives on the embodiment and knowledge-making practices of Swazi traditional healing. It draws from ethnographic interviews and participant observation, conducted across Eswatini and virtually. Building upon African relational research paradigms and postcolonial frameworks, the study findings reflect a vast ontological diversity in healing practices, encompassing healing that is embodied both physically and metaphysically. Similarly, Swazi medical epistemologies are diverse and encompass both human and more-than-human knowledge bases, including dreams, ancestors, and visions. The lived experiences of Swazi people illustrate the dynamic ways in which Indigenous healing practices synergize with and diverge from biomedical healthcare, and suggest possibilities for the integration and transformations of Indigenous medicine in changing contemporary contexts. Swazi Indigenous medicine is identified as experiencing colonial epistemic violence: aware of these harms, many study interlocutors work directly to combat epistemic and ontological erasure.
  • Publication
    Family Character Strengths Curriculum: A Positive Psychology Intervention To Set Well-Being Habits In
    (2024-08-09) Kezya Castellano
    Positive psychology's foundation goal was to teach well-being skills to young people so they could enjoy a flourishing life. Successful advances have been made to reach children in academic settings but have neglected the natural teaching role of families. This paper emphasizes the importance of practicing and nurturing well-being through the practice of character strengths, rather than simply seeking or achieving it. It emphasizes the importance of increasing diverse opportunities to practice character strengths and set tendencies and habits early on in life. This paper proposes a practical and simplified solution for families: creating a curriculum rich in evidence-inspired strengths-based positive psychology interventions for every member to perform individually and collectively throughout the child’s development.
  • Publication
    Flourishing Online: Social Media for Well-Being
    (2024) Joshua W. Howard
    From works like Jonathan Haidt's (2024) The Anxious Generation to anecdotal (and often unsolicited) commentary, the discourse around social media is predominantly negative. While we cannot ignore the significant research correlating aspects of social media over-usage with adverse mental health outcomes, examining the positive implications social media can offer is equally imperative. Consider your positive experiences online, such as reconnecting with a childhood friend or learning a new hobby. Social media platforms, from Quora to TikTok, have had a positive impact on all of us. As it continues to become the primary way the world connects, it behooves us to examine how we can maximize its potential for greater well-being. This paper and teaching tool employ Seligman's (2011) PERMA model as an applicable framework to explore how individuals can leverage social media to foster well-being online. Furthermore, it will investigate how the PERMA elements of positive emotions and engagement result from the actions of positive relationships, meaning, and accomplishment, which will inevitably lead to social media well-being (SMWB). By examining the positive potential of social media through the lens of PERMA, this paper and four-part curriculum seek to shift the narrative surrounding social media's impact on well-being. Keywords: positive psychology, social media, PERMA, well-being, social media well-being
  • Publication
    Positive Dance Workshop: Enhancing Emotional Well-being for Midlifers Through Contemporary Dance
    (2024-05-19) Praveen Powun Anbazhagan
    This paper explores the potential of a contemporary dance-based workshop to enhance midlifers' emotional well-being. It challenges the traditional view of midlife as a time of crisis, and instead, highlights it as a period of potential growth and development. The paper introduces essential concepts from positive psychology and somaesthetics, emphasizing the mind-body connection and the role of self-awareness in emotional regulation and resilience. Furthermore, emotional well-being is defined and discussed, emphasizing the importance of authentic self-expression. The paper also presents contemporary dance as a promising medium for enhancing emotional well-being. It concludes by proposing a twelve-week workshop design customized to tackle the specific challenges and enhance the opportunities of midlife. While acknowledging limitations and the need for further research, this paper argues that contemporary dance offers a unique, holistic, embodied approach to enhancing emotional well-being in midlife and calls for empirical testing of the proposed workshop model, along with further exploration of the intersection between dance, positive psychology, and emotional well-being.
  • Publication
    Toward a Culture of Connection: Sharing a Love Letter to Nature
    (2024) Molly M Peterson
    The relationship between human well-being and environmental well-being is deeply intertwined. This paper explores the constructs of gratitude, nature connectedness, and social relationships to establish the scientific foundation for a positive psychology intervention titled Toward a Culture of Connection: Sharing a Love Letter to Nature. The randomized controlled study will use research on the pathways to nature connectedness by targeting emotional and cognitive leverage points for greater systemic change, addressing calls for more comprehensive, system-informed approaches in positive psychology. As we confront unprecedented environmental challenges and a surge in loneliness and mental health issues, this intervention for couples seeks to enhance both human connection and nature connectedness. Social connection is one of the leading contributors to happiness, and by fostering stronger emotional bonds and a greater cognitive understanding of our interdependence with nature, the intervention aspires to promote happiness and drive positive behavioral changes that support human and environmental well-being.
  • Publication
    Exploring Masculine Strengths Through Character Strengths: A Pilot Study of Positive Masculinity in Boys
    (2023) Ann C. Vanichkachorn
    Media driven debates arguing the fate of boys and men are commonplace, but little has been done to bring consensus in finding solutions. This study aims to explore how character strengths may be leveraged to enhance the healthy embodiment of masculinity. A sample of 107 preadolescent and adolescent males participated in this exploratory study of correlations between masculinity measured by the Children’s Personal Attributes Scale and character strengths identified through the VIA Inventory. Secondarily, the subject's self-reported willingness to express emotions was assessed by questions based on the Emotion Expression Scale for Children. Fifteen character strengths were found to be significantly positively correlated with masculinity scale scores and one character strength (humility) negatively correlated with masculinity. Leadership was found to be negatively correlated with emotional expression. Collectively, top strengths were less masculine than expected for students attending an all-boy school. When broken down by grade levels, significant differences were found that support prior studies assessing the differences in character strengths in boys from late childhood to late adolescence. While these findings are specific to the population studied, it may inform continued research in positive masculinity in boys and identify specific ways that character strengths-based interventions can help address the “plight” of boys and men.
  • Publication
    Exploring Grassland Bird Occupancy On Farm Fields in Pennsylvania’s Chester County
    (2024) Liam Hart
    In North America, roughly three-quarters of grassland bird species have experienced population declines since 1970. These declines have a variety of causes, but the degradation, fragmentation, and outright loss of natural habitat stand out among them. As a result of this habitat loss, many grassland birds now rely on farm fields for nesting territory. This often results in the destruction of nests and young birds by combines or mowers, as many crops are harvested during peak breeding season for birds. Combating this crisis requires conservationists to work closely with farmers and landowners to find solutions that work for them as well as the birds that depend on their land. Understanding how birds respond to different crops and management regimes can inform conservation decisions on a regional level. Pennsylvania’s Chester County is an ideal area to study these dynamics as it has historically had an agricultural economic base but has seen losses in overall farmland resulting from population growth and economic diversification. This study used point count bird surveys, conducted from May 9 to July 16, 2022, across 21 fields in Chester County to assess nesting habitat suitability for three ground nesting grassland birds: Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), Eastern Meadowlarks (Sturnella magna), and Grasshopper Sparrows (Ammodramus savannarum). Fields were categorized into four groups: hayfields mowed before June 1, hayfields mowed after July 1, wheatfields, and row crop fields (corn or soybeans). The data collected in this study show that Bobolinks had a strong preference for hayfields mowed after the end of June, while Grasshopper Sparrows preferred hayfields that were mowed before June. Eastern Meadowlarks occurred in both early cut and late cut hayfields in roughly equal numbers. All three species showed a strong preference for hayfields over the other crops surveyed, although more data may be needed to further assess whether there may be underappreciated value amongst the non-hay crops. Additionally, all three species exhibited edge avoidance, favoring field interiors.