March 26, 2019 Volume 65 Issue 28

Non-Health Schools

Health Schools

Provosts Awards

For Teaching Excellence by Non-Standing Faculty 

For Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring

Teaching Awards Reception: April 29

All members of the University community are invited to a reception honoring the recipients of the 2018-2019 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Awards for Distinguished Teaching, the Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence by Non-Standing Faculty and the Provost’s Award for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring on Monday, April 29, 2019, 5-6:30 p.m., Room 200, College Hall. This year, like last year, the citations will not be released in advance of the event. 

The Gene Therapy Program Preclinical Vector Core in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has been awarded a Gene Therapy Resource Program (GTRP) contract for a third consecutive five-year period from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The mission of the GTRP is to translate gene therapy research to the clinic. The $13 million contract will support the Core, which is directed by internationally renowned expert in gene therapy James M. Wilson, the Rose H. Weiss Professor and director of Penn’s Orphan Disease Center, and a professor of medicine and pediatrics, by providing preclinical vector production, analytics and immunology services to approved scientific investigators from Penn and other institutions.

“The field of gene therapy is finally hitting its stride, and this is exactly the time for the NIH to be providing a robust infrastructure to promote the rapid acceleration of discoveries into clinical trials,” Dr. Wilson said. “The NHLBI is well positioned to do so through the GTRP, which we are delighted to participate in by providing high quality, state-of-the-art vectors for pre-clinical studies.”

The Core disseminates novel adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors to researchers around the world. AAVs are small virus particles with a genome of single-stranded DNA that infect humans and some other primate species. AAVs are not currently known to cause disease. Recombinant AAV vectors are based on AAV viruses that have been engineered to express genes of interest including therapeutic genes for the treatment of inherited or acquired disease.

Over its first 10-year period of GTRP support, the Core completed over 100 requests for research-grade vector production and 10 requests for immunology services for developing gene therapies for a wide range of disorders, including cardiovascular, blood, lung, genetic and infectious disease.

Thomas Reif Kane, former associate professor of mechanical engineering in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, and a pioneer in the field of spacecraft dynamics, biomechanics and modern computational dynamics died in California on February 16. He was 94.

Dr. Kane was born in Vienna, Austria. He immigrated to the US with his parents in 1938 after the fall of Austria to the Nazis. In 1943, he enlisted in the US Army and was stationed in the South Pacific as a combat photographer. In a photograph of the official Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri taken for the Saturday Evening Post, Dr. Kane can be seen kneeling in the background with his camera in hand.

Supported by the GI Bill, Dr. Kane went to Columbia University from 1946 to 1953, earning two BS degrees (mathematics and civil engineering), an MS in civil engineering and a PhD in applied mechanics.

Dr. Kane joined the engineering faculty at the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in 1953. He was promoted to associate professor in 1956. During his time at Penn, he also served as a research engineer and on the Committee Investigating the Question of Sabbatical Leave.

The field of dynamics involves trying to describe and predict the behavior of physical systems with many moving parts through mathematical equations. Early in his career, Dr. Kane concluded that traditional approaches to writing these equations relied too much on vague concepts. So he developed an alternative that colleagues said was much more efficient and logical, now called Kane’s Method. He began teaching Kane’s Method in 1955 while at Penn and it lives on in software for vehicles, spacecraft, robotics, biomechanics and many other mechanical and aerospace technologies.

He left Penn in 1961 for a position at Stanford, where he eventually became professor emeritus of applied mechanics and mechanical engineering. Dr. Kane also taught in England, Brazil and China in temporary positions and spent three months in the Soviet Union in 1968 as part of an exchange program between the Russian and American academies of science.

Dr. Kane contributed to theory and techniques that helped astronauts control their orientation in space without exhausting themselves or requiring assistive devices. Part of this research, featured in Life magazine, involved studying the free-falling motion of cats and enlisting a trampolinist to practice in-air movements in a spacesuit. On one occasion, Dr. Kane acted in his own demonstration, twisting just-so atop a frictionless table to spin it 180-degrees. His about-face convinced officials from NASA of his ability to explain these complex movements with math.

Dr. Kane co-authored 10 textbooks and over 170 technical articles. He was a fellow of the American Astronautical Society and an Honorary Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). When he won the American Astronautical Society’s Dirk Brouwer Award in 1983, the nomination stated, “If you asked any recognized group of experts in the area of space flight mechanics to pick the 10 best people in their field, Professor Kane’s name would undoubtedly appear on every list.” Dr. Kane was also the inaugural recipient in 2005 of the ASME D’Alembert Award, recognizing lifetime achievement and contribution to the field of multibody systems dynamics.

Dr. Kane is survived by his wife, Ann; his daughter, Linda; and his granddaughter, Elisabeth.

Jerome H. Sklaroff, professor of orthodontics in Penn’s School of Dental Medicine for 67 years, died peacefully at his home in Philadelphia on March 18. He was 96.

The son of Eastern European immigrants, Dr. Sklaroff was born in Philadelphia. He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in 1939 and graduated from the Temple University School of Dentistry in 1945. A veteran of World War II, he served as a captain in the US Army Dental Corps as a dentist, first at Ft. Leavenworth prison and then in Germany. Following the completion of his military service, he enrolled at The University of Michigan School of Orthodontics and graduated in 1951.

In 1952, Dr. Sklaroff opened a private orthodontics practice in Philadelphia and became the youngest member of the orthodontic faculty at the Penn’s School of Dental Medicine. During the next 67 years, he was a teacher, mentor and friend to more than 500 orthodontic graduate students. The American Board of Orthodontics awarded him the O.B. Vaughan Special Recognition Award in 2015 to recognize his significant contributions to orthodontic education.

Dr. Peter Greco, co-director of Penn’s Orthodontic Clinic and clinical professor of orthodontics, said, “[Dr. Sklaroff’s] candor was legendary, as there was no ambiguity of his opinion or his sentiment. Among these qualities, his command of orthodontics and his unrelenting status as a lifelong student of the specialty until his last days made him an orthodontic luminary in Penn’s department of orthodontics for over 67 years. We have lost a giant of a man.”

He is survived by his wife, Carole; daughters, Sonya (Michael Bagalman) and Lizabeth (Martin Josefsson); and three grandchildren, Nathaniel, Natasha and Hugo.

A public celebration of his life will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to either the Curtis Institute of Music at www.curtis.edu/giving-archive/make-a-gift/ or to the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine at www.dental.upenn.edu/sklaroff

To Report A Death

Almanac appreciates being informed of the deaths of current and former faculty and staff members, students and other members of the University community. Call (215) 898-5274 or email almanac@upenn.edu

However, notices of alumni deaths should be directed to the Alumni Records Office at Suite 300, 2929 Walnut Street, (215) 898-8136 or email record@ben.dev.upenn.edu

The following is published in accordance with the Faculty Senate Rules. Among other purposes, the publication of SEC actions is intended to stimulate discussion among the constituencies and their representatives. Please communicate your comments to Patrick Walsh, executive assistant to the Senate Office, either by telephone at (215) 898-6943 or by email at senate@pobox.upenn.edu

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Chair Jennifer Pinto-Martin reported on a number of matters.  (1) The Faculty Senate will convene a Teach-In session on April 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. called “What We Know about Race–For Sure.” The session will be held at the Central Parkway Library’s Skyline Room with participation from Penn faculty members John Jackson, Jr., Dorothy Roberts and Sarah Tishkoff. The session will be moderated by WHYY’s Tracey Matisak. The event is open to the public and faculty and students are encouraged to attend. (2) The “Your Big Idea” Wellness contest received more than 450 submissions; 14 semifinalists will “pitch” their ideas before a judging panel on April 25 at 4:30 p.m. in Houston Hall’s Bodek Lounge. The audience will have a chance to cast “live” votes during the session. (3) The Penn & Slavery Project symposium will be held April 3-4 at Van Pelt Library; participation is open to the public. (4) Proposals are now being welcomed for the Provost’s Excellence through Diversity Fund; the submission deadline is April 12.

Past Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Past Chair Santosh Venkatesh reported on the work of the Capital Council, the Provost’s Academic Planning and Budget Committee, and the Campaign for Community.

Update from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. Vice Provost for Research Dawn Bonnell described initiatives from her office that take a “strategic approach to navigating the research landscape.” (1) The Postdoctoral Fellowships for Academic Diversity will be renamed the “Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellows”; the program’s goal to increase the pool of underrepresented groups in academia will remain unchanged. (2) Vice Provost Bonnell described a number of activities designed to promote networking and professional development for researchers at Penn, including the Penn Research Excellence Initiative to support credible, rigorous research initiatives and to “provide researchers with the context with which to influence external stakeholders to support research excellence.” A regional symposium was recently convened on this topic, out of which a multi-use video training archive will soon become available to researchers. Electronic Research Notebooks are now freely available to researchers at Penn. The notebooks provide a cloud-based platform for storage, organization and sharing of research materials within labs and in research courses. (3) An Impact Report on the University Research Foundation for the period 2010-2017 is now available. (4) Two new research funding opportunities are now available and accepting proposals. The “Discovering the Future” research grant program is designed to support “high-risk discovery-based research” in which research initiatives could have transformative impacts. The “Accelerating from Lab to Market” program serves to support “translational research with commercialization potential.” Kim Craig, Research Compliance Officer, described a proposed Policy on Controlled Substances for Research Purposes; SEC members voiced no objections to the proposed policy draft.

Moderated Discussion. SEC members discussed several matters, including principles of academic freedom in research at Penn, continuing efforts by a Faculty Senate standing committee to understand the roles and perspectives of Academic Support Staff within departments, and undergraduate admissions practices at Penn.

Open Forum Topics Submitted for the March 27, 2019 University Council Meeting

The following topics have been submitted to be presented at tomorrow’s University Council.

• Penn’s admission policies for undocumented students; submitted by Jay Falk, C’22
• Keep Veterans in the Classroom at Penn; submitted by James Goins, LPS’20
• Lack of space and insufficient staff in the cultural center, La Casa Latina; submitted by Francisco Saldaña, GEng’19, Latin American Graduate and Professional Students Assembly.
• Limited cultural house resources; submitted by Sanjana Dalmiya, SPP’19, Pan-Asian Graduate Student Association
• Lack of staff and financial resources in cultural houses; submitted by Sarah Adigba, GEng’20 & Joshua Bush, GGS’19, Black Graduate and Professional Students Assembly
• Insufficient resources for FGLI graduate and professional students; submitted by Sarah Simi Cohen, GEd’19, First-Generation, Low-Income, Queer Students, GAPSA IDEAL Council
• Proposed sexual harassment policies and procedures; submitted by Alicia Chatterjee, GEd’18, SPP’20, GrS’23 and Sydney Campbell, Gr’21
• Student perspective on the topic of climate change on behalf of Fossil Free Penn; submitted by Maeve Masterson, C’22, Fossil Free Penn
• Technology transfer at Penn, specifically related to medicines developed at Penn; submitted by Navya Dasari, C’19

Download the Use of Cadavers and Recognizable Body Parts for Education and Research Purposes at the University of Pennsylvania supplement as a PDF.

Please note that this Cadaver Policy supercedes the one published on December 22, 2009 that was effective starting January 1, 2010.

Jessica Anna, assistant professor of chemistry and Elliman Faculty Fellow, and Davi Maximo, assistant professor of mathematics, both in Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences, are among the 126 recipients of this year’s Sloan Research Fellowships, which recognize early-career researchers and scholars in North America. Each will receive a two-year, $70,000 fellowship for research.

Dr. Anna studies natural and artificial light harvesting complexes and biologically inspired model systems. Her group looks at how energy and electron transfer occurs in natural light harvesting complexes in order to better understand how these systems can produce energy from light so efficiently. Her physical chemistry group applies well-established and novel multidimensional spectroscopy techniques to capture a detailed and dynamic glimpse into the energy and electron transfer processes of light-harvesting complexes and engineered model systems. This research provides insights on how to design new systems relevant to solar energy conversion, such as artificial photosynthetic systems, and materials that can convert light energy into electricity.

Dr. Maximo studies variational problems from geometry. His research focuses on minimal surfaces, which are surfaces that minimize area on a local level—for example, a soap film that stretches across a loop of wire. Minimal surfaces are an important model for describing many natural phenomena and have been used in bioengineering and materials science, and in understanding black hole topology within the theory of general relativity. Dr. Maximo’s work aims to understand how these surfaces minimize area on a local level and how they can be used to understand the geometry of complex shapes more broadly.

There have been 117 faculty from the University of Pennsylvania who have received Sloan Research Fellowships.

Three researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania are among the recipients of the 2019 Clinical Research Achievement Awards from the Clinical Research Forum, which recognizes the 10 most outstanding clinical research accomplishments in the United States during the preceding 12 months. Researchers from all 10 winning studies were recognized at a dinner and reception at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

The Penn awardees are Joseph A. Fraietta, an assistant professor of microbiology, for a study predicting the response of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy; Lindsey A. George, assistant professor of pediatrics at Penn and an attending physician in the division of hematology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, for the first gene therapy trial to report a clinical cure for hemophilia B patients; and Courtney A. Schreiber, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, for the only randomized clinical trial to date to test the efficacy of miscarriage management medications.

Penn physicists Charles Kane and Eugene Mele of SAS have been awarded the 11th Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences category “for their discovery of topological insulators, a new class of materials with extraordinary electronic properties—they behave as conductors on the surface, but as insulators in the interior,” the selection committee stated.

Drs. Kane and Mele were also awarded the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (Almanac October 23, 2018).

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards recognizes and rewards contributions of singular impact in science, art and the humanities. Drs. Kane and Mele will split the award’s €400,000 prize that will be presented at a formal ceremony in Bilbao, Spain, on June 18.

With the retirement of Paul Meyer, the F. Otto Haas Executive Director of Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, this spring after 43 years of service, it’s a fitting time to reflect on how the Arboretum transformed in that time. Under Mr. Meyer’s leadership, Morris Arboretum has grown from a hidden gem into one of the region’s most vibrant garden destinations and a world-class institution.

Morris Arboretum saw fewer than 25,000 visitors per year when Mr. Meyer arrived in 1976; in 2018, it saw more than 140,000. It was designated the Official Arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in April of 1988, serving as a model for its peers.

During the past four decades, Morris Arboretum’s finances have shown tremendous growth that have set the Arboretum on a stable and sustainable path. The operating budget has more than tripled from the time Mr. Meyer became director to $9 million today, and the Arboretum’s endowment has grown tenfold since 1991 to its current value of $60.4 million.

Mr. Meyer pointed to others who share the credit. “The strides that Morris Arboretum has made over the years would not have been possible without the hard work of the Arboretum’s staff, board and volunteers whose invaluable contributions continue to enable Morris Arboretum to fulfill its role as a premier public garden.”

Renewal and Restoration

Mr. Meyer began his career at Morris Arboretum as its curator in 1976 and became director in 1991.

He led the clearing of overgrown sections of the garden and the renewal of living collections through expeditions abroad. In all, he completed 12 expeditions to countries including China, Korea, Taiwan, Armenia and the Republic of Georgia, where he collected plants from various sources to introduce greater genetic diversity. He also searched for plants that would specifically grow in stressful urban conditions. Mr. Meyer was a founding member of NACPEC (North America-China Plant Exploration Consortium).

Mr. Meyer’s mantra, according to Morris Arboretum supporter and advisory board member John Shober, was to “think big and take small steps.” Under Mr. Meyer’s guidance, the Fernery, Log Cabin, Springhouse, historic gardens, architecture and vistas with notable plant collections were all restored, and various other attractions were enhanced.

Restoration of the Fernery and Log Cabin are two particularly good examples of stewardship toward revitalizing the Arboretum’s assets. Originally built in 1899, the Fernery documented the British obsession with ferns and glasshouses during the Victorian era. The original building was constructed using locally-mined stone and utilized cutting-edge technology in glass cutting, steam heating and architectural elements. It slowly fell into disrepair over the century that followed its construction. It was not until 1994 that it was fully restored to its original grandeur, with a donation from Arboretum board member Dorrance (“Dodo”) H. Hamilton and other contributors who responded to a major matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (Almanac October 4, 1994). This $1.2 million renovation included restoring the roof to the original curvature, replacing and updating the heating and electrical systems, installing an advanced climate control system and restoring the waterfall, ponds and stone walls. The blue flagstone plaza was also installed during this project to welcome visitors, and provide a shaded relaxing place to stop and enjoy the arboretum. The Dorrance H. Hamilton Fernery is the only remaining freestanding Victorian fernery in North America.

The Log Cabin was originally built as a garden retreat in 1908 by John and Lydia Morris. They used it to entertain friends, and she spent many hours on the porch enjoying the stream and woodlands. With its river-stone cobble chimney, the cabin is similar in style to those often built in the Adirondacks. The building was cool in the summer and provided the warmth of a fireplace in the winter. However, the shady, damp environment can result in faster than normal deterioration to the structure. Now fully restored, the structure and its serene location with its adjacent babbling brook delight visitors.

Education and Building for the Future

Since its inception, research and education have been at the core of Morris Arboretum’s mission, and the education and scientific programs for professionals and the general public also grew and thrived during the past 40 years. The Arboretum built its botanical staff and its reputation for regional floristic studies. Publications published under Mr. Meyer’s tenure include two editions of Plants of Pennsylvania and Aquatic Plants of Pennsylvania by Drs. Timothy Block and Ann F. Rhoads, both of which serve as reference manuals for professionals far and wide.

During this past fiscal year, Morris Arboretum offered 188 continuing-education classes, lectures and experiences serving over 3,500 participants. Engaging youth with the plant world is a long-term commitment for the Arboretum, with the goal of cultivating young environmental stewards and scientists. Providing more immersive experiential summer programs was another strategic goal achieved in both revenue-generating summer camp programs and partnerships with underserved youth. The endowed Internship Program of nine interns celebrated its 39th program year in 2018, and it remains a national model for professional development in horticulture, education, urban forestry and plant sciences.

Another aspect of educational outreach is Morris Arboretum’s Urban Forestry team, which supports the educational mission by disseminating tree care knowledge and providing unbiased arboriculture consulting services and technical assistance to clients including municipalities, institutions, universities, tree care companies, landscape architects and businesses throughout the region. The team also realizes the Arboretum’s educational mission by spreading urban forestry and tree care knowledge through their School of Arboriculture, which provides classes for a wide audience including arborists, allied professionals and industry leaders. While the classes target people in these disciplines, the general public is encouraged to attend to further their arboricultural knowledge.

Beyond education, Morris Arboretum has also focused on building for the future in a more literal sense. The $13 million Horticulture Center at Bloomfield Farm, across the street from the Arboretum’s public garden, completed in 2010, was the first LEED Platinum certified building for the University of Pennsylvania, and only the second in the state of Pennsylvania (Almanac November 23, 2010). Environmentally friendly design features at the 20,840-square-foot Center include an efficient ground-source heat pump that provides heat and air-conditioning for the building, photovoltaic panels that provide on-site generation of renewable energy and other sustainable elements, including geothermal wells to help keep office temperatures comfortable, green roofs that showcase drought-tolerant plants and cisterns that catch rainwater and make it available to be used to irrigate the landscape. The Center provides flexible work space for the Arboretum’s horticulture, education, maintenance and facilities staff.

Leadership Transition

Bill Thomas, executive director of Chanticleer and 2017 Scott Medal Recipient, deemed Paul “horticultural royalty” and truly deserving of this crown. “Throughout his 40-year career, Paul has made outstanding regional, national, and global contributions to the science and art of gardening. Paul has led the renaissance of the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, making it an internationally significant institution known for its collections, aesthetics, education and research. He has promoted collaboration and cooperation among international as well as local organizations, is a world leader in plant exploration and has been instrumental in preserving open space,” Mr. Thomas said.

With Mr. Meyer’s retirement effective March 31, Robert Gutowski, director of education & visitor experience at the Arboretum, will serve as interim executive director effective April 1 through approximately June 30. Mr. Gutowski has served the Arboretum in a variety of capacities for more than 30 years.

Tribute to Paul Meyer

The tribute to Mr. Meyer will be on Sunday, March 31, 3-5 p.m. at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. To register or make a donation to Morris Arboretum in his honor, visit www.morrisarboretum.org/events_paul_meyer_retirement.shtml or call (215) 247-5777 ext. 131.

In recognition of Women’s History Month, here is a selection of some of the award-winning women authors who currently teach or recently taught at Penn.

Laynie Browne, lecturer in creative writing, is a poet whose work explores the notions of silence and the invisible. She won the National Poetry Series Award in 2007 for The Scented Fox and is a three-time recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative American Poetry. Her work has appeared in The Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry, Conjunctions, Fence, Monkey Puzzle, Ecopoetry: A Contemporary American Anthology and Poet’s Choice. She is co-editor of I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women. One of Ms. Browne’s most recent projects, You Envelop Me, utilizes the elegy to investigate birth and loss within the context of the mourning process.

Lorene Cary, senior lecturer in the English department and creative writing, published a memoir, Black Ice, in 1991 about her time as a scholarship student in the formerly all-white, all-male elite St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire. It made the 1992 Notable Book list from the American Library Association and has been taught in colleges and high schools across the country since publication. Her first novel, The Price of a Child, fictionalized the story of a female fugitive from slavery and was selected in 2003 as the inaugural choice of One Book, One Philadelphia.

Angela Duckworth, the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology, senior scientific advisor for the Positive Psychology Center, faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change For Good Initiative, faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics, and founder and CEO of Character Lab, studies grit and self-control. Her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, was a #1 New York Times best seller. She founded a non-profit summer school for low-income children that won the Better Government Award for the state of Massachusetts and was profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study. In 2013, she was selected as a MacArthur Fellow.

Jennifer Egan, artist-in-residence in English, is a novelist and short story writer. Her 2017 novel, Manhattan Beach, received the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Her novel The Invisible Circus became a feature film starring Cameron Diaz in 2001. She also wrote Look at Me, a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction in 2001 and A Visit From the Goon Squad, which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the LA Times Book Prize. Also a journalist, she has written frequently in the New York Times Magazine. Her 2002 cover story on homeless children received the Carroll Kowal Journalism Award, and “The Bipolar Kid” received a 2009 NAMI Outstanding Media Award for Science and Health Reporting from the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Beth Kephart, lecturer in creative writing, is the author of more than 20 books of fiction, non-fiction and fable. She was a National Book Award Finalist for A Slant of Sun: One Child’s Courage. Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, based in part on her teaching at Penn, won the 2013 Books for a Better Life Award, Motivational Category, was featured as a top writing book by O Magazine and was named a Best Writing Book by Poets and Writers. This Is the Story of You was a Junior Library Guild and Scholastic Book Club selection, among other honors. Small Damages was named a 2013 Carolyn W. Field Honor Book and a best book of the year by many publications. Going Over was the 2014 Parents’ Choice, Gold Medal Winner/Historical Fiction, named a Booklist Editor’s Choice and was voted a 100 Children’s Books to Read in a Lifetime by Goodreads, among other honors. One Thing Stolen was a 2015 Parents’ Choice Gold Medal winner and an Amazon pick, among other honors. Her 2013 middle grade historical novel, Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent was named a top book of the year by Kirkus.

Carmen Machado, artist-in-residence in creative writing, has won numerous awards for her debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties. It was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Kirkus Prize, LA Times Book Prize Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. In 2018, the New York Times listed Her Body and Other Parties as a member of “The New Vanguard,” one of “15 remarkable books by women that are shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century.”

Diane McKinney-Whetstone, former lecturer in creative writing, is the author of six novels and works of short fiction that have appeared in numerous publications. She has written three critically acclaimed novels: Tumbling, Tempest Rising, and Blues Dancing. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Library Association Black Caucus Literary Award for Fiction, which she has received twice, a special citation from the Athenaeum of Philadelphia for an outstanding work of fiction by a Philadelphia author, an award from the Zora Neale Hurston Society for creative contribution to literature, and resolutions from the City of Philadelphia and Senate of Pennsylvania for her portrayal of urban life.

Lisa Scottoline, who has taught a course on Justice and Fiction at Penn Law, earned her BA in English from Penn and is also a graduate of Penn Law. She has written more than 30 bestselling novels, including Look Again and Don’t Go, both of which reached number two on The New York Times best seller list. Her book Final Appeal received an Edgar Award for excellence in crime fiction. She was recognized as a Fun Fearless Female by Cosmopolitan and a PW Innovator by Publisher’s Weekly. She also writes a weekly column, “Chick Wit,” with her daughter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. She has served as President of the Mystery Writers of America.

Susan Stewart, former Regan Professor of English, is a poet whose work has been widely published. She is a Berlin Prize Fellow and won an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry for Columbarium and the Truman Capote Prize for Literary Criticism for Poetry, the Christian Gauss Award of Phi Beta Kappa, and Honorable Mention, James Russell Lowell Award of the MLA, for Poetry and the Fate of the Senses. She was a MacArthur Fellow and recipient of the Literary Award from The Athenaeum of Philadelphia for The Forest. In 2005 she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Simone White, assistant professor in the English department, specializes in contemporary poetry and poetics, experimental writing, American literature and the genealogical lines of “American soul,” African-American cultural studies, sound studies and critical legal studies. She is the author of Dear Angel of Death, Of Being Dispersed, House of Envy of All the World and the chapbooks Unrest and Dolly (with Kim Thomas). In 2017, she received the Whiting Award for poetry. Her work has been featured in The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s Magazine, BOMB Magazine, Chicago Review and Harriet: The Blog.

Download the April AT PENN calendar as a PDF or visit the online version at https://almanac.upenn.edu/at-penn-calendar/april-at-penn-2019

The Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance (Almanac March 19, 2019) presents their inaugural lecture, featuring introductory remarks by University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann and Wharton Dean Geoff Garrett.

In addition, leaders from global fintech companies: Robby Gutmann, CEO New York Digital Investment Group; David Klein, CEO and co-founder, CommonBond; and Jacqueline Reses (W’92) head of Square Capital; along with Elad L. Roisman, Commissioner of the US SEC, will partake in a discussion moderated by David Musto, the Ronald O. Perelman Professor in Finance and faculty director of the Stevens Center.

The event will be held on Wednesday, April 3 at 4:30 p.m. in the Ambani Auditorium of Jon M. Huntsman Hall (doors open at 4 p.m.)

This is for members of the Penn community only, and a PennCard or proof of affiliation is required for entrance.

RSVP at https://event.wharton.upenn.edu/event/innovation-in-finance/

On April 3 and 4, the Penn & Slavery Project will host a symposium in the Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion in Van Pelt-Dietrich Library to explore Penn’s relationship with the institution of slavery. Presentations will be given by undergraduates currently conducting research as part of the Penn & Slavery Research Project, and accompanied by roundtable and panel discussions by some of the nation’s leading scholars of slavery, race and medicine. This symposium affirms Penn’s commitment to engaging with the history of slavery and responds to President Amy Gutmann’s call to offer educational and cultural programming that illuminates Penn’s connections to slavery.

This event is free and open to the public, though photo ID is necessary to enter Van Pelt-Dietrich Library.

More information and registering for the event can be found at https://www.alumni.upenn.edu/slavery

Conferences

30    Disruptive Technologies: From Start to Scale; second annual M&T Summit; 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Singh Center for Nanotechnology; register: https://tinyurl.com/y2t53llx (Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology).

Talks

28    2019 Philomathean Annual Oration Lecture; Tracy K. Smith, US Poet Laureate; 7:30 p.m.; rm. B1, Meyerson Hall (Philomathean Society).

AT PENN Deadlines

The April AT PENN calendar is now online. The deadline for the May AT PENN is April 15.

Training for Workday@Penn, a major component of Penn’s Human Capital Management (HCM) Transformation Initiative, will soon begin. The HCM project is transforming how Penn delivers services related to the broad range of human capital management, such as staff recruitment, faculty and staff personnel and benefits administration, payroll, time management and more. Faculty, staff and student workers will enjoy simplified, efficient, modern processes that provide more access to their own information. Workday@Penn will also offer dramatically improved transparency, real-time information and a platform expected by a twenty-first century workforce.

Workday@Penn, which will go live on July 1, 2019, will provide the University community with a learning experience tailored to their particular role in Workday. Workers as self and managers will have ready access to an orientation webinar, tip sheets and other online resources for just-in-time learning. Those members of the University community who will have human resources and payroll responsibilities in Workday@Penn will attend required training before go-live on July 1. These include many of the business administrators, recruiters, payroll administrators and others who accomplish these tasks today in Penn’s legacy systems. Penn’s schools and centers have each designated those who will hold various Workday security roles. Definitions of security roles and descriptions of training courses are now available on the Workday website (PennKey required).

Penn trainers will lead the courses which kick off on April 29 in locations throughout the campus. Those with security roles that require training will soon receive messages from Knowledge Link, Penn’s learning management system that provides access to and registration for classroom and web-based training.

The University of Pennsylvania Police Department Community Crime Report

Below are the Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for March 11-17, 2019. View prior weeks' reports. —Ed.

This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety and includes all criminal incidents reported and made known to the University Police Department for the dates of March 11-17, 2019. The University Police actively patrol from Market St to Baltimore and from the Schuylkill River to 43rd St in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police. In this effort to provide you with a thorough and accurate report on public safety concerns, we hope that your increased awareness will lessen the opportunity for crime. For any concerns or suggestions regarding this report, please call the Division of Public Safety at (215) 898-4482.

03/12/19         7:30 AM          3400 Spruce St            Cell phone taken from vehicle

03/12/19         7:39 AM          3800 Chestnut St         Unknown driver threw rocks at vehicle

03/12/19         9:38 AM          255 S 36th St               Unattended tote bag taken

03/12/19         4:33 PM           309-311 S 40th St       Package taken from building

03/12/19         8:55 PM           3945 Chestnut St        Package taken from lobby

03/12/19         11:04 PM         4040 Spruce St           Male in building without authorization/Arrest

03/13/19         1:57 AM          409 S 43rd St               Attempted strongarm robbery

03/13/19         2:00 PM           3101 Walnut St           Unauthorized transactions made on credit card

03/13/19         3:30 PM           4010 Locust St           Thumb drive taken from office

03/13/19         8:16 PM           51 N 39th St               Unsecured wallet taken

03/13/19         9:10 PM           3604 Chestnut St       Merchandise stolen

03/14/19         1:50 AM          3700 Chestnut St        Subjects in possession of weapon/2 arrests

03/14/19         11:43 AM        3730 Spruce St           Payment not received for services rendered

03/14/19         11:57 AM        3637 Locust Walk       Unauthorized transaction made on account

03/14/19         1:44 PM           215 S 33rd St             Secured bike taken

03/14/19         3:01 PM           421 Curie Blvd           Secured bike taken

03/15/19         3:49 AM          3900 Chestnut St        Unwanted messages received

03/15/19         4:18 AM          215 S 39th St              Secured bike taken/Arrest

03/15/19         7:46 AM          4000 Spruce St           Male committed robbery with knife/Arrest

03/15/19         11:27 AM        4000 Walnut St           Intoxicated driver/Arrest

03/15/19         6:14 PM           3631 Walnut St          Unknown male took phone from display

03/15/19         7:29 PM           3417 Spruce St          Unattended laptop and headphones taken

03/16/19         3:16 PM           2900 Market St           Strongarm robbery

03/16/19         7:48 PM           3929 Sansom St         Complainant punched and knocked unconscious

03/16/19         7:57 PM           200 S 38th St              Intoxicated driver/Arrest

03/17/19         4:27 PM           4100 Chestnut St        Items removed from vehicle

18th Street

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 11 incidents (6 assaults, 4 robberies, 1 aggravated assault) with 6 arrests were reported between March 11-17, 2019 by the 18th District covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

03/12/19         12:06 PM         4700 Locust St            Assault/Arrest

03/12/19         12:06 PM         4700 Locust St            Assault/Arrest

03/12/19         12:06 PM         4700 Locust St            Assault/Arrest

03/12/19         12:06 PM         4700 Locust St            Assault/Arrest

03/12/19         10:39 PM         42nd/Chester Aves     Robbery/Arrest

03/13/19         1:39 AM          409 S 43rd St               Robbery

03/13/19         2:12 PM           4400 Market St           Assault

03/13/19         4:06 PM           4500 Spruce St           Assault

03/16/19         3:16 PM           2900 Market St           Robbery

03/16/19         7:48 PM           3929 Sansom St         Aggravated Assault

03/17/19         9:11 PM           4400 Larchwood Ave  Robbery/Arrest

The University of Pennsylvania Museum is now offering free admission to veterans of all branches of the United States Armed Forces (with valid ID).

The Museum is grateful to those who have served our country, both at home and abroad. Acceptable forms of identification include: a veteran ID card (which has only been available since 2017), a military ID with Veteran designation, a state ID or driver’s license with veteran designation (most states offer this, including PA), a Veteran Health Identification card from the VA, a Department of Defense Identification Card, or a member card from a veteran organization (American Legion, AMVETS, VFW, VVA, etc.). 

For information, visit the Museum’s website at https://www.penn.museum/visit/plan-your-visit

Most students start out foreign language classes inquisitive and spirited, ready to discover current social and political issues in the target culture. At the same time, they often struggle to find meaning in complexity and become overwhelmed or frustrated as they try to make sense of the language and culture they are learning. To address these struggles, one of our learning goals in our fourth semester German course is for students to recognize patterns in both the language and the culture by continually learning about and reflecting on current events. As foreign language educators, we see a clear role for language acquisition and the development of cultural competency as key to the mission of the university. Thus, we want our students to pursue this goal through learning and practicing transferable skills such as research skills, digital media literacy, analysis of source materials and application and creation of new knowledge from these engagements.

Although no strangers to multimodal approaches, we still struggled to discover a tool that would align effectively with our learning goals. After consultation with an initial training from Penn’s Center for Teaching and Learning, we chose Timeline JS, an online timeline platform developed by the Knight Lab at Northwestern University. Timeline JS is an open-source digital tool that was originally designed as a storytelling platform for journalists and is easily adaptable to other fields. The platform serves multiple purposes, such as archiving, analyzing, developing an argument and reflection.

In our classes, we use this tool to engage students in consideration of German politics. After a discussion of definitions for ‘populism’ and ‘extremism’ as well as examples of such movements on a wide-ranging political spectrum in Germany, students in our course researched the media coverage of populist movements between the last two German federal elections in 2013 and 2017 with the goal of ascertaining any apparent shifts in language and/or content indicative of changing attitudes. While students completed several phases individually, they mainly worked in collaborative groups using the Timeline JS tool to organize, curate and analyze their findings.

Initially, we organized the students into mini-research teams, one for each of the years between elections (2013-2017) and brainstormed possible search terms for Google. We introduced students to the ways that the selection of specific search dates and language choices for Google can maximize their results. This was an important scaffolding step: unfamiliarity with the topic as well as a lack of relevant vocabulary at first only generated the word “populism” as a possible search term. A little bit of probing eventually revealed a much broader range of suitable words and phrases. Students identified at least nine terms to describe a person affected by the refugee crisis, a phenomenon that raises particularly strong populist reactions. Reflecting on these choices, students recognized that each word carries its own social and political implications and would affect the results of their searches, thereby gaining a more dynamic and deeper understanding of key vocabulary and cultural complexity. Students also began to recognize the implicit ideological messages their own word choices might carry when they present their research. We then addressed the practical technology issues, showed examples of other Timeline JS projects and distributed handouts with detailed, step-by-step instructions.

Building on these in-class activities, we asked students to complete the second phase at home, searching for relevant, reliable sources for their assigned year in the form of news reports, videos, political cartoons, social media posts, polls and graphs, among others. Students were then asked to write a synthesis of their source in no more than 10 sentences and upload their media and syntheses in the shared Google Spreadsheet provided by the Timeline JS home page. Here, the decision-making process for including or excluding certain sources, that is curating the information, compelled students to read critically and evaluate for a specific audience (students of German as a foreign language) and purpose. Since each group was assigned only one part of the puzzle, they felt responsible to their peers to work carefully, timely and thoughtfully. Linguistically, students were challenged not only to comprehend their sources but also to process, rephrase and synthesize the information. Using quotes and properly citing sources, a skill not always automatically transferred from first language into the foreign language domain, became an essential issue that had to be addressed as an interim step during the next class meeting.

Student entries into their Timeline JS spreadsheet automatically generated an interactive, multi-dimensional visual, audio and textual representation of their work. In the concluding in-class phase, students worked in their specific ‘year’ groups to analyze the results on Timeline JS for noteworthy tendencies and then prepared their conclusions for a presentation to the other groups. The class discussion revealed several important new insights about populism in Germany, such as the unexpected number of young participants in populist movements. Class discussion also revealed a possible blind spot on part of the students’ research skills. Their choices in search terminology resulted only in examples of right-wing populism, and  generated no examples of left-wing populist movements.

Through this project, students were actively engaged in the representation and creation of new knowledge for a specific purpose and audience. Moreover, they are essentially scaffolding their own learning process; students selected media based on comprehensibility, relevance and personal interest without the mediation of instructors or didactic materials. They worked collaboratively to help each other become more knowledgeable about populism and justified selection of their sources.

In surveys, students commented that the creation of the timeline helped them perceive a pattern in the growing populism movement. Additionally, they indicated that it helped them put things into perspective and become aware of their own prejudices, by critically reflecting on the nuances between populism and extremism, and by comparing populism movements across cultures. This helped them gain a multifaceted understanding, avoiding a simplistic and binary approach to this complex topic. Furthermore, they stated that they recognized how they acquired a transferable skill, that they could apply to other areas of their studies. Yet others pointed out that it was insightful to gather information collaboratively from different sources and perspectives as it provides a kaleidoscopic view of the theme. Finally, some students indicated that this project had enabled them to navigate digital content more critically and effectively. This feedback does not only reemphasize the role foreign language education plays in meeting the goals of a liberal arts education, but it also points to the effectiveness of incorporating digital tools in a deliberate way.

Sibel Sayılı-Hurley and Claudia Baska Lynn are both lecturers in foreign languages in the Germanic Languages & Literatures Department in SAS.

This essay continues the series that began in the fall of 1994 as the joint creation of the College of Arts and Sciences,

the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Lindback Society for Distinguished Teaching.

See https://almanac.upenn.edu/talk-about-teaching-and-learning-archive for previous essays.