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Arts & Humanities

Tracing an ancient blue across the ancient world
Examples of cross sections of Egyptian blue samples.

Tracing an ancient blue across the ancient world

Penn researchers Vanessa Workman and Alexis North are studying one of the largest collections of Egyptian blue objects ever found in the ancient Near East, shedding new light on how the world’s first synthetic pigment may have traveled far beyond Egypt.

4 min. read

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Designing opportunities, not solutions, in Northeast Arizona
Max Taylor, a Hopi ethnobotanist, leads students on a site visit at the Hopi First Mesa Consolidated Villages.

Max Taylor, a Hopi ethnobotanist, leads students on a site visit at the Hopi First Mesa Consolidated Villages in the fall of 2025.

(Image: Courtesy of Weitzman News)

Designing opportunities, not solutions, in Northeast Arizona

In a collaboration with the Hopi of Arizona, Weitzman School of Design students learn to listen to the land and channel the community’s aspirations.

From the Weitzman School of Design

2 min. read

The enduring legacy of Rumi

The enduring legacy of Rumi

In a new book, Jamal J. Elias, Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities and professor of Islamic history and visual culture in the School of Arts & Sciences, explores the poet’s impact.

From Omnia

Studying Shakespeare through the lens of love
A professor standing at the head of a table talking to students.

In honor of Valentine's Day, and as a way of fostering community in her Shakespeare in Love course, Becky Friedman took her students to the University Club for lunch one class period. They talked about the movie "Shakespeare in Love," as part of a broader conversation on how Shakespeare's works are adapted.

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Studying Shakespeare through the lens of love

In Becky Friedman’s English course Shakespeare in Love, undergraduate students analyze language, genre, and adaptation in the Bard’s plays through the lens of love.

3 min. read

Exploring ‘One Thousand and One Nights’
Students and faculty look at rare books in the Lea Library.

Dr. Paul Cobb, center, looks on as students and library staff examine rare versions of “One Thousand and One Nights” in the Lea Library.

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Exploring ‘One Thousand and One Nights’

A seminar from Middle Eastern medievalist Paul Cobb gets students talking and thinking about the “disorienting” storytelling in “One Thousand and One Nights.”

3 min. read

‘Collecting the New Irascibles’ debuts at the Arthur Ross Gallery

‘Collecting the New Irascibles’ debuts at the Arthur Ross Gallery

The Jan. 30 celebration featured 32 artworks from the avant-garde cultural world in New York City’s East Village during the 1980s, which offer a new perspective on the personal connections between collectors and emerging artists, and their impact on the trajectory of art history.

Literature and medicine
Dag Woubeshet (right) speaks with student in a classroom who is giving the thumbs up.

Dagmawi Woubshet (right), Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Associate Professor of English, says “we try to teach our students how to think critically and historically, but also with fidelity to the art object.”

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Literature and medicine

The Penn Arts & Sciences course Literature and Medicine begins with Apollo and the Hippocratic Oath and extends through the 21st century with poetry, novels, videography, historical texts, and guest lecturers from the Perelman School of Medicine and beyond.

Kristina Linnea García

2 min. read

The professor who moonlights as a songwriter
Album cover for My Mother In Love's “The Summer Sessions”

Professor Girlfriend’s debut album marks a shift from Anna Weesner’s prior work, situating her as part of a collaborative trio rather than as a composer.

(Image: Courtesy of Anna Weesner)

The professor who moonlights as a songwriter

The musical trio Professor Girlfriend, which includes Anna Weesner, Dr. Robert Weiss Professor of Music in Penn's School of Arts & Sciences, bends genre and challenges boundaries with a new album, “My Mother In Love: The Summer Sessions.”

From Omnia

2 min. read

An inside look at the history of television
Handwritten notes and paper relics from TV shows in the past.

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An inside look at the history of television

Materials in the Annenberg School for Communication Library Archives include thousands of TV scripts, the first issue of TV Guide, and interviews about the early days of HBO—which help to chronicle TV’s 100-year story.

3 min. read

Preserving the past
Brian Whetstone.

Assistant professor of historic preservation Brian Whetstone.

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Preserving the past

Brian Whetstone, assistant professor of historic preservation at the Weitzman School, explores the intersections between housing and labor equity at museums, historic sites, and preservation organizations.

From the Weitzman School of Design

2 min. read

A design fall studio brings interdisciplinary thinking to Philly’s historic and commercial core
Philadelphia’s Market Street east of City Hall in 1889.

Philadelphia’s Market Street east of City Hall in 1889.

(Image: John Gibb, Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Collection)

A design fall studio brings interdisciplinary thinking to Philly’s historic and commercial core

Studio Plus design students at Weitzman focused on working through the future of Philadelphia’s Market East neighborhood, and explored issues of historic preservation, urban planning, and housing.

2 min. read