Penn English Department

Congratulations to the Class of 2026!!!

Click here to watch our English majors graduate:

2026 College of Arts and Sciences Graduation Ceremony The College Graduation Ceremony celebrates the achievements of the graduating seniors in the College of Arts and Sciences. Each participant's name is read as...

Josephine Park, Associate Dean for Arts and Letters and School of Arts and Sciences President’s Distinguished Professor of English, has a vision for raising the visibility of humanities scholarship—and it starts with the recent Humanities Works lightning talks.

🔗 https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/championing-humanities-josephine-park-horizons

Whitney Trettien, Associate Professor of English and Faculty Director of the Price Lab for Digital Humanities, is one of three faculty members named to a new SAS AI Advisory Group.

“In the digital humanities, we’ve been developing new methods that take advantage of AI’s possibilities while advocating for clear, thoughtful policies around its use and integration into our classrooms,” says Trettien. “It’s exciting to connect this work to the larger effort across Penn Arts & Sciences.”

Read more here: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/news/school-arts-sciences-launches-AI-data-collaborative

The School of Arts & Sciences announces the launch of the AI & Data Collaborative, articulating its vision for integrating the use and study of artificial intelligence into research, teaching, and engagement.

A new SAS AI Advisory Group made up of three faculty with vast experience in these areas will lead the coordinated, strategic effort: Bhuvnesh Jain, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Natural Sciences, Co-Director of the Data Driven Discovery Initiative (DDDI), and Co-Chair of the University’s AI Council; Whitney Trettien, Associate Professor of English and Faculty Director of the Price Lab for Digital Humanities; and John Lapinski, Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor of Political Science, Faculty Director of the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program and Fels Institute of Government, and Director of the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies.

Read the full announcement: https://bit.ly/4t5I5Zq

Tags: University of Pennsylvania, Price Lab for Digital Humanities, Penn English Department, Penn's Fels Institute of Government

Accolades are pouring in for Professor Abdulhamit Arvas and his book, Boys Abducted: The Homoerotics of Empire and Race in Early Modernity!

Published by Duke University Press this past spring, the monograph has received considerable acclaim for its examination of literary tropes and the history of vulnerable youths captured and trafficked in English and Ottoman literary and visual culture.

Book from Assistant Professor of English Abdulhamit Arvas Garners Two Awards | School of Arts and Sciences - University of Pennsylvania Arvas has received acclaim and praise for his debut monograph.

In an excellent new article on LitHub, Professor Jean-Christophe Cloutier considers the history of Kerouac’s posthumous sales. Click here to read it:

On the Auction Block: Jack Kerouac’s Record-Breaking Manuscripts Just a few weeks ago, on March 12, 2026, which would have been Jack Kerouac’s 104th birthday, the On the Road scroll sold at auction at Christie’s in New York for a whopping $12,135,000. This marks…

Through their new project, SideGig, Professors Paul Saint-Amour of English and Kevin Platt of Russian and East European Studies explore songs and sound. Plus, it gives the pals a chance to hang out.

Read all about their podcast in this excellent OMNIA profile!

Music Friendship and a Podcast on the Side Through their new project, SideGig, Paul Saint-Amour of English and Kevin Platt of Russian and East European Studies explore songs and sound. Plus, it gives the pals a chance to hang out.

In Dr. Becky Friedman’s English course Shakespeare in Love, undergraduate students analyze language, genre, and adaptation in the Bard’s plays through the lens of love.

Read more in this profile from Penn Today: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/english-becky-friedman-studying-shakespeare-through-lens-love

Professor Jean-Christophe Cloutier was a guest on RadioWest KUER Podcasts to talk about Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and the new documentary, Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation, directed by Ebs Burnough.

Visit english.upenn.edu to learn more about Prof. Cloutier's work and click below to listen to the podcast episode now!

Hitting the Road with Jack Kerouac | RadioWest | KUER Podcasts Jack Kerouac published “On the Road” in 1957, and it became the defining novel of the Beat Generation. Today, a new documentary explores the book’s legacy.“K...

An English course on narrative medicine invites students to look at poetry, novels, and essays that explore illness, disease—and, ultimately, what it means to be alive.

Click here to read about a special course taught by Professor of English Heather Love and Dagmawi Woubshet, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Associate Professor of English, recently featured in the Penn Arts & Sciences magazine, OMNIA.

https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/literature-and-medicine-heather-love-dagmawi-woubshet