News
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January 2, 2020
Alumna Andrea Mitchell on Her Career in JournalismNBC News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent and Penn alumna spoke at Kelly Writers House about her 40-plus-year career. She discussed everything from breaking into TV journalism in the 1960s to moderating the Democratic presidential debate.
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January 2, 2020
How Rituals Shape Our WorldFrom graduations to wedding ceremonies, baby showers to retirement parties, our lives are ordered by a series of rituals. But how do these rituals develop over time and what do they tell us about culture and society at large? At Penn home football games, fans throw toast onto the field after the third quarter. (Image: Chase Sutton) Undergraduate students in COMM 388: Ritual Communication—taught by Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies Litty Paxton—are taking a deep dive into the unique language of ritual to explore some of the answers to these questions.
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January 2, 2020
Restoring Indigenous Knowledge Systems and LanguagesLanguage is an intrinsic part of culture and an essential way of sharing customs, knowledge, and belief systems. But in North America, Indigenous people historically were forced by the U.S. and Canadian governments to abandon their languages. Today, many Indigenous communities are engaging in a painstaking process of language recovery and rejuvenation. Penn’s Educational Partnerships with Indigenous Communities (EPIC) was created to support this effort.
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January 2, 2020
‘May the Force Be with You’ and Other Fan Fiction FavoritesStarting with Star Wars, Penn researchers create a unique digital humanities tool to analyze the most popular phrases and character connections in fan fiction.
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January 2, 2020
Diving Into Code to Illuminate the History of ComputingScience historian Stephanie Dick of the School of Arts and Sciences studies how computer scientists think by studying what they do.