Archaeologist Kathleen Morrison (center) and anthropology doctoral student Moriah McKenna discuss one of the charred lumps from a 2010 excavation in southern India. The image is possible thanks to a new microscope, seen here on the right, that takes and stitches together high-resolution images in incredible detail. (Image: Eric Sucar)
From 2,800-year-old charred food lumps, a window into past civilizations
At a site in southern India, archaeologist Kathleen Morrison and colleagues discovered the remains of two types of dough, offering insights into how the region’s dietary practices have evolved.
Lynn Meskell is the Richard D. Green Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor in the Department of Anthropology in the School of Arts & Sciences, a professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and the graduate program in Historic Preservation in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and a curator in the Middle East and Asia sections at the Penn Museum.
(Image: Eric Sucar)
Studying the past through a modern-day lens
In a Q & A, archaeologist and PIK Professor Lynn Meskell discusses her background, the subjects that interest her—from espionage to World Heritage sites—and collaborations that have organically arisen at Penn despite the pandemic and a mostly remote first year.
(Homepage image) As a scholar, Fakhreddine works hard to retain as much of a poem as possible when it moves from Arabic to another language. “It’s a challenge that all translation involves. We talk about what’s lost and what’s gained,” she says. “It’s all exaggerated here with these short musical pieces. Their meaning is ground in their sound.”
The ‘music’ of one poet’s words, translated
With help from her daughter, scholar Huda Fakhreddine published an English version of 30 poems for children written by her father in Arabic, paying tribute to their endearing and enduring subject matter and to the musicality and richness of their sound.
Senior Rachel Swym (left) was a summer intern with alumna Leanne Huebner at the educational nonprofit Minds Matter, and they have continued their connection ever since.
Mentor support for the first-generation college experience
Three decades apart, senior Rachel Swym and alumna Leanne Huebner found a common bond in their rural backgrounds and first-generation, highly aided college experience.
A novel theory on how conspiracy theories take shape
In a new book, Dolores Albarracín, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, and colleagues show that two factors—the conservative media and societal fear and anxiety—have driven recent widespread conspiracies, from Pizzagate to those around COVID-19 vaccines.
Homepage image: Students brought their own expertise to the experience of working with the archival materials, including translation of Chinese characters written on the back of photographs. Working together (center) were College freshmen (from left) Louis Dong, Nancy (Ziqi) An, and Alice (Yucheng) Feng.
From the archives, a class on different communities of Jews in China
Kathryn Hellerstein created an opportunity for her first-year seminar students to study archival material from a collection donated to the Penn Libraries by her mentor, Israeli scholar Irene Eber.
Pre-arrival and gateway testing for the start of the spring semester
Penn Today provides details on COVID-19 testing requirements for students, postdocs, faculty, and staff who are either enrolled in courses this spring or are coming to campus regularly.
