The fright stuff: What research tells us about fear
Researchers share their findings on fear as it relates to primal world beliefs, phobias, callous-unemotional traits in children, and persuasive messaging.
Penn Integrates Knowledge Professorships
"The time has come to lower the barriers that separate departments and schools. Discipline must reach across to discipline and build bridges of common understanding and shared purpose across all 12 of Penn’s schools and throughout the campus."
Penn President J. Larry Jameson
Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professorships
As the challenges of our time grow more complex and consequential, Penn is poised like no other to innovate and lead. Through the recruitment of faculty who cross disciplinary boundaries, Penn fosters innovation and expands the world’s knowledge in new and unanticipated ways. Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professors hold appointments in two or more schools at Penn, and draw on their breadth of knowledge to collaborate with colleagues on boundary-breaking research.
With 12 schools on one contiguous campus, our world-class faculty – especially PIK Professors – are masterful collaborators. As they pursue their path-breaking work, they bring knowledge together across disciplines and use that knowledge to illuminate some of the most fundamental issues of our time.
On Campus and in the World
With a flick of a switch: Reducing addiction risk from opioid painkillers
Penn’s Dirk Trauner and collaborators have developed a platform that allows opioid activity to be turned ‘on’ or ‘off’ with the flick of a light switch, paving the way for bypassing opioid addiction and other adverse side effects.
AI helps detect media bias, informing voters and news consumers
New research from Penn’s Computational Social Science Lab outlines the scientific framework used by its Media Bias Detector that breaks news coverage into measurable components, allowing researchers to study how editorial choices shape what readers see, and what they don’t.
Evolutionary advantages to leaving the nest
Neuroscientist Michael Platt and molecular anthropologist Theodore Schurr trace the evolutionary roots of moving away from home—and what campuses full of newcomers mean for genes and brains.
![(from left to right): Social media creators Manny 215 [Manny Clark], Prince Dre, Fis Banga, and Ant Brown on stage with facilitator Tamara Russell at the Creators for Community Safety Summit. Brown is speaking and holding a microphone. The slideshow in the background reads: "Panel: Violence Prevention and Conflict Resolution"](https://penntoday.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2026-08/CreatorInstitute-Ant-Brown-teaser.jpg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=muWE0epi)
Partnering with local digital leaders to promote violence prevention
A team of Philadelphia-based content creators is collaborating with Penn public health experts to develop a comprehensive anti-violence campaign tailored for youth across the City, with youth-focused workshops and educational materials to be piloted in select Philadelphia public schools this fall.
Dolores Albarracín appointed new director of Annenberg Public Policy Center
Albarracín is a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts & Sciences. She is assuming the role from Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the inaugural director since 1993.