Arts & Sciences in Action

Philosophy for the Young

Young minds have the capacity for philosophical thought. The problem is, there isn’t much room for philosophical exploration in traditional curricula. This project encouraged children to think philosophically by building on existing partnerships and cultivating new relationships with schools across Philadelphia and students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Penn undergraduates worked alongside graduate students in dedicated philosophy classes and clubs and in classrooms where teachers worked to integrate the subject into existing lessons.

Karen Detlefsen, Vice Provost for Education, Professor of Philosophy and Education, and project leader, views the work as a social and educational justice project, giving students the chance to think freely and explore topics including personal values, character, and social systems.

Penn in Kenya

More than 150,000 North African refugees and asylum-seekers live in Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp and the adjacent Kalobeyei Settlement. The majority of them have arrived since 2013, fleeing the ongoing civil war in South Sudan.

For several years, a project led by Peter Decherney, Professor of English and Cinema & Media Studies, has allowed Penn students to partner with residents at the Kakuma Camp to film accurate narratives of the refugee experiences and create education and training programs for other residents. The current project pairs Penn students with students at the FilmAid Kenya training program to design an open online course, a MOOC, that will allow refugees and other at-risk communities around the world access FilmAid’s successful curriculum.

Reducing Lead Exposure: Testing a Nationally Replicable University-Municipal-Community Partnership

Concerns over lead poisoning were heightened in the U.S. after the contamination of a city water supply in Flint, Michigan. In Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania, rates of lead exposure in children are high—especially in low-income communities. This project, which began in spring 2017, involved students and faculty working with key stakeholders in municipal government, local schools, and community groups to develop and implement a program to eliminate lead exposure through lead service line replacement.

Under the direction of Reto Gieré, Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, undergrads collaborated with Penn faculty, public school students and teachers, and members of the community. Students used GIS skills to prepare maps that identified properties with lead lines, promoted lead screenings for children in affected neighborhoods, and developed curricula to raise awareness about lead service lines, health risks, and community action.

Sighting Black Girlhood

The COVID-19 pandemic and protests against police violence drew attention to deep inequities embedded in our social and political systems, yet the gendered dimensions of these programs are not always fully understood. The Sighting Black Girlhood project, led by by Deborah Thomas, R. Jean Brownlee Term Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Experimental Ethnography, brings issues that Black girls face into public attention.

It builds on an existing exhibit and portrait campaign called “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” designed to see Black girlhood as a sacred space. It will involve a team-taught course, collaborations with partners in Philadelphia, Jamaica, and South Africa, and a traveling exhibit that will generate research on interventions in the lives of Black girls in those area.