Resources at Penn

Penn Globalization Programs

Below are some annotated links relating to globalization studies and projects from within the Penn community. They are sorted into groups by topical area. If you have a link that you would like to submit, please contact us.

Global Development Collaborative, Inc. – A multinational non-profit corporation with a roster of cutting-edge development programs in our adopted community of Nuevo Jerusalen in northern Peru. It creates and implements these projects in collaboration with a ground staff consisting of Peruvian professionals and an American staff based at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Georgetown University, and Wake Forest University.

Campbell Collaboration – An emerging international effort that aims to help people make well-informed decisions by preparing, maintaining, and promoting access to systematic reviews of studies on the effects of social and educational policies and practices.

International Relations Program – Offers a multi-disciplinary course of undergraduate study on the ways in which people, private groups, and governments from differing sovereign states relate to each other in the global political and economic systems. The curriculum provides a well-rounded liberal arts education valuable in all walks of life. But it is also designed to prepare students for law or business school, graduate school in the social sciences, the Foreign Service, and international careers of all sorts.

Center for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication – The Annenberg School for Communication initiated the Center for Global Communications Studies (CGCS) to provide a greater emphasis for graduate students and faculty on comparative and international communications. CGCS sparks research opportunities for graduate students, organizes conferences, and provides consulting and advisory assistance to academic centers, governments, and NGOs.

Institute for Public Service, Annenberg School for Communication – Communication and Public Service (COMPS) is offered as a unique under- graduate concentration in the Communication major. Students have the option to complete an internship for academic credit at a cooperating public service site (Link to PDF).

Penn Fels Institute of Government Throughout our 70 year history, Fels has been committed to advancing the quality of public leadership. Fels offers focused, practical educational programs that prepare students for public sector work; provides research and consulting services that improve the performance of organizations that serve the public; and bridges the worlds of practice and possibility through conferences, lectures, and discussions about public issues and public problem-solving.

Penn Global Development Initiative – Designed to help make Penn a stronger presence in international research, development, and policy. Will work towards the eight Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations as reachable by 2015. Provides funding for international student internships and has an annual forum.

Penn Humanities Forum – The Forum provokes its diverse participants to discover common ground through the selection of a yearly theme. Each topic is explored in a rich program of public lectures, performances, and exhibitions, as well as through faculty and student research.

Penn Language Center – Established in 1989 for the purpose of expanding, intensifying and enriching Penn’s language curriculum. The most significant feature of the Center has been its structural flexibility that has made it possible to respond to changes in demand for language instruction that are not covered within the regular programs of established departments. The PLC has been able to serve growing language instruction needs which could not be covered within the regular programs of established departments. PLC offers over 40 languages every academic year.

The Annenberg Scholars Program in Culture and Communication – Established at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania in December 2004 as a forum dedicated to thinking about critical social and scholarly issues that lie at the intersection of culture and communication. Under the auspices of the program, scholars-in-residence offer academic classes that explore the cultural dimensions of critical issues in the public sphere; workshops and seminars continue the conversation in informal settings about topical cultural issues; and public lectures focus public attention on the critical role of culture and communication in shaping public life.

The Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research – Combines the efforts of multiple disciplines and perspectives to creatively address critical issues facing the child welfare system. With a “think-outside-the-box” approach, the Field Center is able to transcend traditional barriers and creatively find solutions. Some examples of Field Center projects are: Creative Interdisciplinary Collaborations; National Legislative, Policy, and Legal Initiatives; Community Symposia; Contracted Training and Consultation; Child Advocacy Clinic; Assistance in Critical Cases; Training Future Leaders; Groundbreaking Research; and National Child Welfare Conference.

Alzheimer’s Disease Center – The University of Pennsylvania Alzheimer’s Disease Center and Penn Memory Center conduct several distinct types of research studies related to dementia, and specifically Alzheimer’s disease. These include: Treatment studies, diagnostic studies, genetic studies, ethics & medical decision making studies, instrument validation studies.

Bioethics Center – Founded in 1997, the Center brings together faculty and researchers from across the university, housing laboratories and facilitating collaboration among diverse scientific disciplines. While PCBI represents the research wing of Penn bioinformatics, Penn computational biologists also provide services to external labs, mentorship for graduate training, and continuing education workshops and seminars, creating an interdepartmental home for ongoing research and next-generation science.

Center for Bioethics – Whether giving talks at community meetings, testifying before Congress or the United Nations, or providing commentary to journalists, Center faculty are frequently called upon to share their expertise in bioethics. The Center is the leading resource in the world for the media. The thoughts and opinions of Center Faculty and Fellows have appeared in numerous publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times, MSNBC.com and have also been featured on national news programs such as NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, 20/20, Prime Time Live, PBS’ Jim Lehrer News Hour, and CNN. To further engage the public, provide meaningful insights and raise provocative questions, the Center also sponsors a variety of public lectures, symposia and workshops on timely bioethical issues.

Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research – The Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania is a research and research training enterprise focusing on the outcomes of health care and health workforce policy.

Institute on Aging – The focus of Institute on Aging (IOA) is not only on aging-related neurodegenerative disease. IOA’s two newest partners at Penn are: the Penn MARCH Center (Minority Aging Research for Community Health), located in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health, an interdisciplinary group, located in the School of Nursing Science, that is working to better understand transitions in health to allow nurses to play a major role in health promotion, prevention of health problems, and the effective management of people of all ages and at all stages of health. The IOA Pilot Grant Program provides initial support in basic science and clinical areas in aging for investigators engaged in biomedical, epidemiological, behavioral or health services research.

Institute for Environmental Medicine – Established in 1968 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania in recognition of the increasing need for study of the interaction of man with the environment. The current research interests of Institute investigators encompass both basic and applied biomedical studies with special emphasis on undersea and aerospace environments and on the interface of the environment with the respiratory and nervous systems.

Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence – International Documents the international programs and global perspectives on nursing. This page includes recent news and presentations as well as publications and power point presentation on topics relating to global public health.

Penn Nursing-Global Initiatives – A PAHO-WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Leadership. The web site features Penn Nursing’s global initiatives.

UPENN SOM Global Health Programs – Coordinates global activities of the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and supports the international aspects of research, educational, and service programs.

Penn Center for AIDS Research: International Core – Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is made up of investigators from the University of Pennsylvania, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Wistar Institute. The International Core was set up to increase Penn’s profile in International Medicine by working in Bostwana where prevalence of AIDS is highest. The core also facilitates the implementation of international research projects.

School of Dental Medicine WHO COLLABORATING CENTER – Specializing in oral infectious disease, the center is focused on training practitioners from the US and other nations in the care of those with oral infectious disease, particularly HIV. In addition to the education and training goal, the center also has a clinical research program designed to further the study of all aspects of oral infectious diseases.

Botswana UPenn Partnership – The Government of Botswana, the University of Botswana and the University of Pennsylvania formed the Botswana UPenn Partnership to build capacity in Botswana in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. UPenn is taking a broad interdisciplinary approach to train health care personnel throughout Botswana in prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and its complications, to develop outstanding post-graduate training programs at the University of Botswana with an emphasis on Internal Medicine and its subspecialties, to offer experience in global health to UPenn trainees, and to develop joint research programs that address issues relevant to the health and welfare of the citizens of Botswana.

Institute for Environmental Studies – Dedicated to providing undergraduate and graduate students with an understanding of key scientific, economic, and political issues and to providing new alternatives to global management of environmental resources. By providing a center of excellence in environmental research and education, the Institute contributes directly to an enhanced understanding of the complexity of environmental problems. In addition to many specific interests, the Institute has adopted watersheds and urban environmental issues as special priorities.

Center for Animal Health and Productivity – Zoonotic infectious diseases, those that can be transmitted between animals and people, are of growing concern. While the global threat of animal-transmitted infectious disease increases, too few resources have been marshaled to advance further study in this arena. For example, resistance to antibiotics is an increasingly urgent problem that crosses all facets of medicine, and impacts both humans and animals. Center for Animal Health and Productivity believes that answers can only be found if the urgent need for more veterinarians with expertise in infectious disease research is met.

Center for Animal Health and Productivity – The focus of the CAHP is the maintenance of physical and economic health in the whole animal population rather than clinical treatment of individual sick animals. The CAHP provides an infrastructure for applied research and directly supports specific research and development projects pertaining to the health management of food animal populations. Examples of these activities are our widely used nutritional formulation and health record management computer programs and new economic algorithms for evaluating and improving the productivity of dairy herds, research in farm nutrient management and the development of a comprehensive computer model for food animal resource management.

Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society – CIAS is a multi-disciplinary research center within the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The broad goal of the CIAS is to promote understanding of human-animal interactions and relationships across a wide range of contexts including companion animals, farm animals, laboratory animals, zoo animals, and free-living wild animals.

Veterinary Center for Infectious Disease – Supports infectious disease research through The Infectious Disease Research Fellowship Program, The Research Initiative Fund, which provides funds for urgent new infectious disease-related research projects at the School, and The Zoonotic Disease Seminar Series, which provides a forum for specialists and non-specialists to meet and discuss important developments in zoonotic disease research.

Walter Flato Goodman Center for Comparative Medical Genetics – CCMG is designed to foster interdisciplinary research and research training in this field through the development of shared resources. The investigators focus their research primarily on naturally-occurring genetic diseases of animals that are true homologs of human genetic diseases.

Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Security – The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania established the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Security to support scholarly research, teaching, and outreach on global aging, successful retirement, and public and private pensions. Researchers of Global Aging evaluate means to strengthen global retirement income systems and ways to address economic and social problems in developing and developed countries. The center also supports projects on public and private pensions, extending the work of the Pension Research Council at the Wharton School.

Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business – A unique four-year undergraduate course of study that integrates business education, advanced language training and a liberal arts education. Huntsman students graduate with a professional education and an understanding of the political, economic and cultural complexities in the world. They earn two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the School of Arts and Sciences and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School.

Penn Institute for Economic Research – PIER administers seven research programs that correspond to the main fields of research of the economics community at Penn. These fields are econometrics, empirical microeconomics, financial economics, international economics, macroeconomics, microeconomic theory, and political economy. PIER organizes Economics Day at Penn and provides the Lawrence R. Klein Prize for the best undergraduate research paper and the Maloof Family Dissertation Fellowship in Economics. The Institute also holds conferences at which research papers are presented and discussed, to facilitate interactions between Penn researchers and other scholars around the world, and organizes a monthly luncheon to provide its fellows with an informal forum for the exchange of ideas.

Penn International Business Volunteers – PIBV is a non-profit, student-run organization that promotes awareness of the need to use business skills to benefit those in need throughout the world. PIBV holds speaker events on measures to fight poverty, screen documentaries of various non-profits, organize conferences on corporate social responsibility, and throw social events aimed at raising transcultural appreciation. It also hosts fundraisers to subsidize a portion of the trip (the costs of which are incurred by the students).

Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies – The Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies combines a world-renowned Wharton MBA, a Master’s in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts & Sciences and customized language training. It’s an intense 24-month program that prepares leaders for the ever-evolving global economy.

The Center for High Impact Philanthropy (CHIP) – Housed at the School of Social Policy and Practice, CHIP seeks to help donors ensure that their gifts result in the broadest social impact. One of the areas of concentration is Global Heath and Development.

The Granoff Forum on International Development and the Global Economy – Established in 2000 by a Penn alum to explore the intersection of globalization and economics. Has had four notable speakers, including former President Bill Clinton. Descriptions of talks, commentary, and in two cases videos of the lectures are available.

Weiss Center for International Financial Research – The primary mission of the Weiss Center is to encourage research on international finance. This mission is to be pursued through the support of research activities at the Wharton School, the sponsorship of international conferences and research meetings, and the publication of working papers and monographs.

Center for International Comparisons of Production, Income and Prices – CICUP maintains the Penn World Table (PWT), a widely used data set for international comparisons containing consistent measures of economic aggregates and prices across nations and over time.

Christopher H. Browne Center for International Politics – Established at the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 in order to promote interdisciplinary research and teaching across the University community on issues of international relations, international security, and international political economy.

Ethnohistory Program – An interdisciplinary endeavor coordinated by Penn scholars from departments such as, Anthropology, History, and History and Sociology of Science. Workshops are designed to discuss and generate feedback from scholars and graduate students on working or unpublished papers. Of particular relevance to globalization studies are workshops from 2007-2008 and 1998-1999. Lists of speakers and paper topics are available for current and previous years.

Population Studies Center – Originally concerned demography. As the field of population studies has evolved, so too has the PSC at Penn. PSC at Penn contributes to understanding of the dynamics of human populations, with emphasis on the following research themes: the health and well-being of populations; human resources and endowments; innovation in methods; international population research; policy evaluation; growth and structure of populations; and networks in populations.

Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR) – Dedicated to fostering increased understanding of cities and developing new knowledge bases that will be vital in charting the course of local national and international urbanization. Penn IUR is a campus-wide institute, and sponsors a number of initiatives, stimulates research, provides opportunities for collaborative instruction and engages with the world of practitioners and policymakers.

Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism (the DCC Program) – Established with the aid of a $2.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the School of Arts and Sciences. Both the University and SAS have designated “democracy and constitutionalism” as a central theme for Penn research and teaching.

Penn Program in Ethnic Conflict – Created in 2007 to advance research, education, practice, and policy-relevant study in ethnic group conflict and political violence. The mission of the Program is to sustain and enhance the efforts of social scientists to identify the origins, trajectory and impact of violent intergroup struggles.

The Women’s Studies Program and The Alice Paul Center at Penn – Includes programs on gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and global issues. Events include international conferences, endowed lectures, and seminars. An email announcement list for events is available.

Center for Collaborative Research and Practice in Teacher Education – A primary objective of the Teacher Education Center is to advance a collaborative agenda in research on teacher education that draws together faculty, graduate students, local and national educators.

Center for Research and Evaluation in Social Policy – The focus of CRESP is on reviewing, generating, and analyzing quality evidence relevant to policy in education and related social services fields such as social welfare, criminal justice, and health services. CRESP serves mainly as an institutional vehicle for conducting funded research and for providing research opportunities for graduate students. The majority of current work at CRESP focuses on policy research and evaluation in education pertaining to the recruitment, quality, retention, and shortage of elementary and secondary teachers in the United States, and mathematics and science education in international perspective.

Center for School Study Councils – Works to improve the quality of education in school districts across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Center serves as a catalyst for school district superintendents to take a pro-active leadership role and facilitates their professional development. The Center for School Study Councils is part of the Penn Center for Educational Leadership (PCEL). PCEL programs and services are designed to actively improve the instructional, organizational, and public leadership capacities of member school districts.

Center for Urban Ethnography – Annual Ethnography in Education Forum convenes the Ethnography in Education Research Forum, the largest annual meeting of qualitative researchers in education.

Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) – A joint effort of the graduate schools of education at Penn, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Focuses on school reform, governance, policy, and finance.

Penn Center for Educational Leadership – Provides programs and services targeted at improving leadership in schools and districts, helping them enhance students achievement and growth.

Penn Literacy Network – A comprehensive professional development/curricular enhancement program that provides on-site seminars, workshops, and mentoring programs to preK-12 educators.

Penn Project for Civic Engagement – A cross-University project that collaborates with media, business and community agencies to identify and address projects on emerging issues. It links citizen concerns to expert knowledge and media coverage, to develop real-world solutions that might not emerge otherwise.

Pre-Doctoral Training Program in Interdisciplinary Methods for Field-based Research in Education – Supports the Ph.D. training of students in different disciplines who are committed to careers in applied, field-based education research.

The 21st Century Center for Cognition and Science Instruction – A consortium of Penn GSE, Penn’s Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, Temple’s Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, the University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center, Research for Better Schools, and The 21st Century Partnership for STEM Education. Focuses on cognitive science in developing middle school science curricula.

Institute for Law and Economics – Presents two series of public lectures: Law and Entrepreneurship and Distinguished Jurist. In sponsoring these events, the Institute aims to spotlight and honor lawyers who have led noteworthy careers and made significant contributions as corporate executives and entrepreneurs, or as members of the judiciary at the state or federal levels. The Institute also sponsors programs aimed at the academic community.

International & Comparative Law – Penn Law offers a rich array of programs and extracurricular activities at the University of Pennsylvania, complemented by events at other Philadelphia institutions. Easy access from New York and Washington allows us to host leading scholars, practitioners and public figures in foreign and international law and related fields. The international programs and opportunities are bolstered by the active presence of more than 80 foreign-trained attorneys from around the globe who come to Penn Law to study in the graduate LL.M., LL.C.M., and S.J.D. programs.

Penn Program on Documentaries and the Law – Seeks to promote the critical use and analysis of law-genre documentaries in the legal academy, examine the role of lawyering in the creative process by which documentary films are made, and create models for instructing law students, lawyers, and others in the fundamentals of nonfiction filmmaking and legal advocacy on film.

Penn Program on Regulation – PPR brings rigorous, balanced analysis from multiple disciplines to bear on important regulatory policy problems and alternative strategies to solve them, as well as on the processes of making and implementing regulation.

Program on Law, Environment & Economy – PLEE’s goal is to encourage research and teaching that explores the positive and normative foundations of environmental and natural resource law and policy, seeking both to explain the existing system and to provide a rigorous theoretical and empirical basis for a better way forward.

Executive Master’s in Technology Management > Global Perspectives – A Master’s degree from Penn Engineering that is co-sponsored by the Wharton School. This particular concentration focuses on global technology and business.

Penn Engineers Without Borders – PennEWB is the University of Pennsylvania chapter of Engineers Without Borders – USA. On campus, around Philadelphia, and around the world, PennEWB seeks to address the challenges of international development through educational initiatives and the implementation of hands-on, sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible students. Since 2004, PennEWB has taken great strides towards accomplishing this goal and will continue to be a driving force in the education and development of students, mentors, and community members. Pictures of PennEWB activities available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/pennewb

African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania – A comprehensive site about Africa and African Studies of interest to many audiences. It includes links to a variety of research programs occurring at Penn, as well as providing detailed information about all African nations.

Center for Advanced Judaic Studies – The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania is the only institution in the world devoted exclusively to post-doctoral research on Jewish civilization in all its historical and cultural manifestations. The combining of the Katz Center’s distinguished scholars and superb library holdings with Penn’s outstanding and substantial faculty and library resources in Judaic Studies has established the University of Pennsylvania as one of the world’s major centers for the study of Jewish civilization.

Center for Ancient Studies – The Center for Ancient Studies at the University of Pennsylvania strives to bring together students and faculty, as well as members of the greater Philadelphia community, who share a passion for the ancient world, through the promotion and support of events pertaining to pre-modern societies. The rationale for creating the Center for Ancient Studies at Penn is based on the idea that scholars of antiquity from all disciplines will benefit immeasurably from systematic contact with each other, and that their research proceeds from a common set of methodological and cultural issues peculiar to the study of antiquity.

Center for East Asian Studies – A federally recognized and supported Title VI National Resource Center. It is an interdisciplinary unit composed of faculty members whose teaching and research focus primarily on China, Japan, Korea, and bordering areas.

Center for International Comparisons – Established in 1990 to continue the intellectual legacy of Simon Kuznets, who helped to create the system of national accounts. In addition to working on constant price national accounts, the Center also is involved in the area of spatial national accounts, along with cross-country and inter-area comparisons of incomes and prices.

Center for Italian Studies Events – Offers courses in Italian language and literature, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. These are integrated with a wide range of interdisciplinary programs in history, art history, religious history, musicology, Classical, Medieval and Renaissance studies, as well as in more contemporary areas of study such as film, sociology, and political science.

Center for the Advanced Study of India – Since its founding in 1992, the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI) has continued to uphold Penn’s global reputation as a leading center of research in South Asian studies. The goals of the Center are threefold. The first goal is to engage in policy-relevant research focused on the challenges facing contemporary India and thereby improve our understanding of India’s politics and society, its rapidly changing economy, and transformation as an ancient civilization and emerging major power. CASI Received Grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Global Migration and Human Mobility program, will support research and policy efforts on the impacts of diasporas in reforming institutions in their home countries (more info available: Link to PDF).

Italian Studies Center – The Center assists Italian Studies students and others in pursuing plans for study in Italy, through the Penn-in-Florence, university-affiliated academic programs, or as an individual research project. The Center also fosters interdisciplinary perspectives by sponsoring lectures, readings by Italian authors, and international conferences across the spectrum of Italian Studies.

Latin American and Latino Studies Program – Offers a means of understanding similarities and differences among the cultures and societies of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Latino populations in the United States. The Latin American and Latino Studies major provides students with a solid foundation of knowledge in and about this important part of the world, and the Minor provides students with an opportunity to add intellectual coherence to their primary major through a deepening experience of area studies.

The Middle East Center – MEC adopts an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Middle East. In addition to student support through educational programs and certificates, the Center’s Outreach Program offers kindergarten-through-high school teachers, as well as the wider public, access to the multitude of resources on the Middle East available through the University of Pennsylvania.

South Asia Forum – The South Asia Center at the University of Pennsylvania coordinates events of the Department of South Asia Studies and Graduate Group in South Asia Regional Studies and provides outreach to Penn and surrounding communities. It is funded in part as a National Resource Center by the U.S. Office of Education.

AIESEC, University of Pennsylvania – AIESEC, the largest student-run organization in the world and present in over 107 countries, facilitates intercultural exchange by helping Penn students secure international internships and by hosting international interns here in Philadelphia. It also provides leadership experiences for members of the club.

Penn Global Activities Registry – The Global Activities Registry is Penn’s central resource for collecting information about the travel plans and activities of faculty, staff, and students preparing to travel abroad for academic, educational, clinical, research, or University business purposes.