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SCHOLARSHIP
AND COMMUNITY
Humanities Forum to Start a Cultural Dialogue
If you want an example of how estranged
academic humanists have become from the general culture of the United
States, says Dr. Wendy Steiner, the Richard L. Fisher Professor of English
and chair of the department, consider this: "There wasn't a single
English professor" included on the panel that selected the 100 best
books of the 20th century compiled for Random House's Modern Library imprint
last summer. (True, the list was widely dismissed -- for the near absence
of works by women and minority writers, among other reasons -- but it
generated more talk about books than any event in recent memory.) "That's
symptomatic," Steiner says. "I think we're just left out of
a whole lot of things." Continued...
ETHNIC
IDENTITY
Who's a Jew in Israel? Anyone but an Arab?
In recent years, the question of "Who is a Jew?" has plagued
Israeli Jews, as Orthodox rabbis have attempted to deny the legitimacy
of Reform and Conservative Judaism. But according to Dr. Ian Lustick,
professor and chair of political science, the question takes on a whole
new dimension when one looks at the recent waves of immigrants to Israel
from the former Soviet Union. Continued...
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WHEN word got out that the stores in the 3700 block of Walnut Street were slated for demolition, long-time customers of the Pennsylvania Book Center were worried -- especially when the Barnes & Noble-operated Penn Bookstore opened in Sansom Common. But the Penn Book Center finally found a home at 34th and Sansom Streets. Owner Achilles Nickles, C'54, (right) and manager Keith Helmuth look relieved. |
WORK
Same Hours, Less Time
"I'm trying to solve a puzzle," said Dr. Jerry Jacobs, professor
of sociology. "Why does everybody feel so busy while the data seem
to say that we're not?" It's a timely question, and in a paper titled
"Who are the Overworked Americans?" Continued...
MEDICINE
Radioactive Cocaine Analogue Sheds Light on Brain
The story behind the diagnostic drug that could someday lead to a cure
for Parkinson's disease has all the elements of an international thriller:
A Penn scientist flies to Asia without telling most of his colleagues.
Once there, he injects himself with a radioactive cocaine-like substance
based on a formula that he and his team of researchers have just developed.
Then he puts his head in an imaging machine -- a SPECT scanner, as it's
called -- and makes a picture of his brain. Continued...
RESEARCH
Sexual Abuse of Boys: Underreported
Based on an exhaustive review of existing literature, researchers at Penn's
School of Medicine have determined that the sexual abuse of boys in the
United States has been dramatically underreported and undertreated, with
possibly devastating consequences. Some eight to 16 percent of the overall
male population has a history of sexual abuse, concluded Dr. William Holmes,
the assistant professor of medicine who served as lead author of the study,
which appeared in the December 2 issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association. Those found to be at highest risk for sexual
abuse were younger than 13 years, nonwhite, of low socioeconomic status,
and not living with their fathers. Continued...
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Copyright 1999 The
Pennsylvania Gazette Last modified 2/17/99
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