Sociology | Penn Today

Train station experiment reveals one way to counteract bias against Muslims

Nicholas Sambanis of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about the results of his study on the perception of immigrants and ways to mitigate the discrimination they face. “If we want to think about policy interventions to reduce these [discriminatory] behaviors, first we have to understand exactly what is the mechanism that causes this bias,” he said.

Minorities in majority spaces

Ashleigh Cartwright, doctoral candidate in sociology, examines how nonwhite students are selected and prepared to integrate historically white schools.

What is race? It isn’t skin color, as some young people are learning

PIK Professor Sarah Tishkoff gave a guest lecture at a New Jersey private school about the social construction of race as a biological category. “I feel like we have to talk about it because if we don’t, it’s just going to promote misunderstanding,” she said.

White Americans say they’re less prejudiced

Dan Hopkins of the School of Arts and Sciences wrote about his research, conducted in collaboration with recent alumna Samantha Washington, which found that “the average levels of anti-black and anti-Hispanic prejudice expressed by white Americans actually dropped from 2016 to 2018.”

Black and white image of a person on a fence in front of a field.

For non-Hispanic whites in the U.S., life expectancy outlook worsens

Research from Penn demographers shows that, though trends vary regionally, mortality is increasing, particularly for women, 25- to 44-year-olds, and those in rural areas.

Julia Szymczak with a river in the background

Social solutions to antibiotic resistance

Research by sociologist Julia Szymczak of the Perelman School of Medicine is aimed at understanding, and eventually changing, behaviors that lead to the overprescribing of antibiotics.

A crowd of people on an outdoor staircase in France

Q&A

A conversation about second-generation immigrants and mortality

In a Q&A, Penn demographer Michel Guillot discusses recent work showing that male children of immigrants from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia have a mortality rate nearly double that of the native population in France.

Why so many older Americans rate their health as good or even excellent

Jason Schnittker of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about older adults’ positive perceptions of their own health. “Older people expect some deterioration in health and aren’t thrown off course in the same way when it occurs,” he explained.

adolph reed, political science professor

Adolph Reed is retiring. But he’s still got more to say

After more than 40 years as a political science professor, incisive commentator, and mentor to countless students, Reed is ending his teaching career. Now, he can turn his full attention to writing, and the 2020 campaign.

Latin American and Latino Studies celebrates 30 years of growth, plans for the future

What began as a handful of faculty and students has matured into a program offering a major and minor, grants, and a local and international community hub.

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