Political Science | Penn Today

Text of the first amendment displayed on the outer wall of a building.

Amid pandemic and protests, civics survey finds Americans know more of their rights

The 2020 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey reveals Americans have a greater awareness of government and individuals’ rights, a byproduct of highly charged political times.

Column: Trump’s ‘law and order’ pitch falls flat

Dan Hopkins of the School of Arts & Sciences said of the upcoming election, “If Trump appeals to prejudice, he risks losing at least as many voters as he stands to gain.”

Man walks up stairs. Posters in Hindi hang on the walls.

Q&A

‘India front and center’

Tariq Thachil talks with Penn Today about his current work on migration and urbanization in south Asia, the balance between research and teaching, and his new role as the director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI).

A hand can be seen putting an envelope with the words "ballot enclosed" into a ballot box on a sidewalk.

Assessing constitutional and legal challenges for the 2020 election

A panel of 10 experts spoke at a virtual symposium at the Penn Carey Law School about the challenges facing the presidential election, from the pandemic to mail-in voting.

Pennsylvania voting access suit could have national repercussions

Research by Marc Meredith of the School of Arts & Sciences found that voters in majority Black and Latino jurisdictions experience longer wait times at the polls than those in majority-white districts.

Rattled by protests, Iraqi Kurdish leaders punish journalists

Mohammed Salih of the Annenberg School for Communication said Kurdistan’s political system has both democratic and authoritarian tendencies. “The pendulum typically swings more toward the authoritarian side of the spectrum during moments of ‘crisis’—that is, when the ruling class feels direct challenges to their power,” he said.

the philadelphia energy solutions refinery with the philadelphia skyline in the background

At the intersection of the built environment, environmental health, and social justice

Junior Kingsley Song and sophomore Sage Basri worked with faculty mentor Franca Trubiano this summer to learn more about the wide-reaching impacts of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery.

Social Studies: Asian Americans and affirmative action, COVID on the frontier, gender roles

Research led by Stephen Pettigrew of the School of Arts & Sciences found that longer wait times at the polls in 2012 discouraged voters from participating in elections in 2014.

Finding poll workers was hard before coronavirus. Now, America has a huge challenge

Stephen Pettigrew of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about staffing for November’s election. “In normal times it’s challenging to recruit poll workers; in a pandemic, it’s even worse,” he said.

CNN fact checker Daniel Dale is a ‘firehose’ dousing Trump’s incendiary lies

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center commented on Daniel Dale’s fact check of statements made by President Trump during a speech at the Republican National Convention. “Dale’s rapidly spoken summary and correction of distortions in the Trump acceptance speech was more likely to leave viewers impressed with Dale than it was to help viewers remember the corrections,” she said.

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