Search Results

Faculty Priorities: Where Does Faith Fit?

Eugene R. Rice

in The American University in a Postsecular Age: Religion and the Academy

DiIulio argues that “nonsectarian” has sometimes been misconstrued to mean aggressively “secular.” But nonsectarian education does not have to be anti‐religious or devoid of religion. He uses the ... More

DiIulio argues that “nonsectarian” has sometimes been misconstrued to mean aggressively “secular.” But nonsectarian education does not have to be anti‐religious or devoid of religion. He uses the University of Pennsylvania as a case study, describing how it is slowly reclaiming its original nonsectarian identity, as first articulated by its founder Benjamin Franklin, in place of the strongly secular culture that defined the school in the 1960s and 1970s.Less

The Urban University as Community Service Institution: Pennsylvania in the Era of Gaylord P. Harnwell

Ethan Schrum

in The Instrumental University: Education in Service of the National Agenda after World War II

Chapter 3 portrays Gaylord P. Harnwell’s effort to make the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) a “community service institution,” in part by stimulating Philadelphia’s economic development. Penn’s ... More

Chapter 3 portrays Gaylord P. Harnwell’s effort to make the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) a “community service institution,” in part by stimulating Philadelphia’s economic development. Penn’s unfolding understanding of its identity as an “urban university” and its almost overnight creation of the intellectual center of American city planning suggest the impact that both the legacy of the New Deal state and the increasingly urban setting of higher education in the postwar years had on American universities’ instrumental turn. This chapter also illustrates how both Kerr’s ideas about universities and the nascent concept of a knowledge economy began to play out in places around the country, such as in Harnwell’s work with the University City Science Center and the Governor’s Council of Science and Technology.Less

South Asian Studies: Futures Past

Nicholas B. Dirks

in Autobiography of an Archive: A Scholar's Passage to India

This chapter discusses the history of South Asian studies in the United States. The conjuncture between Sanskritic scholarship and the strategic concerns and contexts of World War II has had vast ... More

This chapter discusses the history of South Asian studies in the United States. The conjuncture between Sanskritic scholarship and the strategic concerns and contexts of World War II has had vast importance in the shaping of South Asian area studies, which in its early years was dominated by a fascination with ancient Indic civilization on the one hand and with contemporary society, politics, and economy on the other hand. Only in recent years (the 1990s) have the fields of colonial and postcolonial studies, modern history, and contemporary cultural studies emerged as a new kind of foundation for the study of South Asia. The chapter charts this transition and considers its larger implications as we head to the twenty-first century. It also looks at the W. Norman Brown's role in the early development of South Asian studies in the United States. Brown was the founder of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of South Asia Regional Studies and professor of Sanskrit at the university between 1926 and 1966.Less

“Instruments of Technical Cooperation”: American Universities’ Institution Building Abroad

Ethan Schrum

in The Instrumental University: Education in Service of the National Agenda after World War II

Chapters 4 and 5 respectively explore the international and domestic institutional arrangements that American universities created to promote economic development around the world. Chapter 4 explains ... More

Chapters 4 and 5 respectively explore the international and domestic institutional arrangements that American universities created to promote economic development around the world. Chapter 4 explains the US government’s university contracts abroad program, created in 1951 as part of the effort to implement Point Four. It also provides two case studies of university activities in Pakistan under government contracts: Penn’s attempt to create the Institute of Public and Business Administration at the University of Karachi, and the University of Southern California’s subsequent public administration program at several Pakistani institutions. The USC program self-consciously reflected on its “institution building,” and the case study traces the rise of that concept in the nationwide discussion of universities’ overseas activities that began in the mid-1950s among academic, foundation, and government officials.Less

The World before (and Shortly after) Wharton: Getting a Business Education in the Nineteenth Century

Steven Conn

in Nothing Succeeds Like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools

This chapter examines why educational leaders and businessmen in the United States thought it was a good idea to establish business schools in the first place. The answer often offered at the time ... More

This chapter examines why educational leaders and businessmen in the United States thought it was a good idea to establish business schools in the first place. The answer often offered at the time was that American business itself had grown so big and complex by the turn of the twentieth century that a new university-level education was now required for the new world of managerial work. However, the more powerful rationale was that businessmen wanted the social status and cultural cachet that came with a university degree. The chapter then looks at the Wharton School of Finance and Economy at the University of Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1881 and became the first business school in the United States. All of the more than six hundred business schools founded in the nearly century and a half since descend from Wharton.Less

The Boy from Philadelphia

Howard Pollack

in Marc Blitzstein: His Life, His Work, His World

This chapter covers basic geneological information and family history, including material about the Blitzstein Bank; the composer’s childhood in Philadelphia; his closeness to his sister Josphine; ... More

This chapter covers basic geneological information and family history, including material about the Blitzstein Bank; the composer’s childhood in Philadelphia; his closeness to his sister Josphine; his years as a piano prodigy; his earliest poems and music; his years at the University of Pennsylvania; his personality (both as a child and in later life); and an overview of his sexual and romantic life, which included relationships with men and women.Less

The Eisenhower Solution, 1948–1952

Lawrence S. Kaplan

in Harold Stassen: Eisenhower, the Cold War, and the Pursuit of Nuclear Disarmament

Stassen’s failure to win the Republican nomination for president in June 1948 did not quench his thirst for high office. Robert T. McCracken, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania’s Board of ... More

Stassen’s failure to win the Republican nomination for president in June 1948 did not quench his thirst for high office. Robert T. McCracken, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania’s Board of Trustees, offered Stassen the university presidency in July, and the board elected him on September 17, 1948. The enthusiasm he aroused among college students as a Republican candidate convinced him that higher education had always been in the forefront of his ambitions. Stassen saw himself in the same light as Eisenhower, who had accepted the presidency of Columbia University. As the president of a prestigious Ivy League university, he could ensure his prominence in national affairs. For four years, Stassen walked a delicate line between his university obligations and his political ambitions. Inevitably, he had to confront criticism over his extracurricular activities. However, the possibility of a cabinet appointment in a Dewey administration became irrelevant when President Truman won the election in November.Less

Life Before the War

Graham T. Dozier

in A Gunner in Lee's Army: The Civil War Letters of Thomas Henry Carter

Thomas Henry Carter was born in 1831 at Pampatike in King William County, Virginia. His parents, Thomas Nelson Carter and Juliet Muse Gaines Carter, occupied a prominent position among the leading ... More

Thomas Henry Carter was born in 1831 at Pampatike in King William County, Virginia. His parents, Thomas Nelson Carter and Juliet Muse Gaines Carter, occupied a prominent position among the leading families in Virginia. Thomas Carter spent most of his life on farming. In the fall of 1846, he enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute, a military college in Lexington, and underwent a strict combination of academic and military training. After graduation, Carter enrolled in the medical school at the University of Virginia for the 1850–1851 session. In June 1851 he received the degree of doctor of medicine. Carter continued his medical education at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, he chose to practice his skills at the Blockley Almshouse sometime in the fall of 1852. In 1854 or early in 1855, he met Susan Elizabeth Roy, and they got married in November 1855. Six years later, he voted in support of secession before forming an artillery battery. On June 22, 1861, Carter wrote the first of his many wartime letters to his wife Susan.Less

The Nineteenth-Century Business School: Fall of the Classical and Rise of the Vocational and School of Opportunity Traditions

in Creating New Knowledge in Management: Appropriating the Field's Lost Foundations

The collegiate school of business (CSB) was established to elevate business training and to make higher education practical. An example of the CSB was the Wharton School of Finance and Economy (WSFE) ... More

The collegiate school of business (CSB) was established to elevate business training and to make higher education practical. An example of the CSB was the Wharton School of Finance and Economy (WSFE) at the University of Pennsylvania. After five decades of experimentation, however, the business school did not integrate with the college and was used by students to take short courses and earn certificates that would allow them to obtain jobs and promotions in the near term, rather than to earn a degree. The WSFE's efforts in applied social science succeeded as professional social work but not as a business school. Out of the WSFE emerged the vocational school of business (VSB), which broke with the college and partnered with Extension and the School of Opportunity. The VSB attracted students in part by linking education to employment. Although the VSB succeeded with the public, it turned the business school into a rogue actor in the research university.Less

The Medical Student

Sue Leaf

in A Love Affair with Birds: The Life of Thomas Sadler Roberts

This chapter examines Thomas Sadler Roberts’ medical education at the University of Pennsylvania in 1882, believing that natural history was not a gentlemanly vocation. Staying in Germantown where ... More

This chapter examines Thomas Sadler Roberts’ medical education at the University of Pennsylvania in 1882, believing that natural history was not a gentlemanly vocation. Staying in Germantown where his Aunt Cornelia Roberts’s family lived, Roberts was presented with an opportunity to put down a few roots in his father’s hometown by spending some time with his Quaker relatives. During his stay, Roberts showed his skill in memory. One noteworthy display of this skill was when he quoted a textbook verbatim on an oral exam. The rigors of medical school, however, led to Roberts neglecting his bird studies. His journals omitted anything about avian presence in Philadelphia. But his interest did not vanish entirely as during his second year, he accepted an invitation to become a member of the American Ornithologists’ Union. The chapter concludes by describing his residency at the Philadelphia General Hospital.Less

The Religious Culture of the Latter-day Saints

Melvyn Hammarberg

in The Mormon Quest for Glory: The Religious World of the Latter-Day Saints

Chapter one introduces The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in terms of its three-fold mission—to proclaim the gospel …; to perfect the Saints …; and to redeem the dead.” This chapter also ... More

Chapter one introduces The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in terms of its three-fold mission—to proclaim the gospel …; to perfect the Saints …; and to redeem the dead.” This chapter also describes the passing of several of the presidents of the LDS Church, also recognized as prophets, seers, and revelators, and whose passing was marked by a ritual known as a “solemn assembly.” The tools for this study are participant-observation-interview ethnographic methods. Further background information describes the graduate group faculty in the program in American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania as the academic setting for the commencement of this research.Less

“The State of Society”

James P. Cousins

in Horace Holley: Transylvania University and the Making of Liberal Education in the Early American Republic

The trustees of Transylvania University offered Horace the presidency in the fall of 1817; he first declined but then agreed to suspend judgment until he visited the campus. His journey from Boston ... More

The trustees of Transylvania University offered Horace the presidency in the fall of 1817; he first declined but then agreed to suspend judgment until he visited the campus. His journey from Boston to Lexington commenced in the early spring of 1818. On his way, Horace hoped to investigate notable institutions of higher learning, the state of religious feelings in the United States, and the general condition of American society. He recorded his visits to Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, the medical college of Maryland, and the University of Pennsylvania in his travel diary and in letters to his wife and family. This chapter concludes with a discussion of Horace’s intentions and early attempts to modify established educational ideas within his new surroundings.Less

Postlude

Neil Gould

in Victor Herbert: A Theatrical Life

Herbert is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery and Ella reconciled his affairs. She preserved her father's memory in many ways. She donated money to the Sisters of Mercy Building Fund in Lake Placid for a ... More

Herbert is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery and Ella reconciled his affairs. She preserved her father's memory in many ways. She donated money to the Sisters of Mercy Building Fund in Lake Placid for a room memorializing his name. She also established a Victor Herbert Collection at the University of Pennsylvania which contains a rare copy of the piano-vocal score of Prince Ananias. It is the only complete collection of the Herbert operetta scores at any university library.Less

Bringing ENIAC to Life

Thomas Haigh, Mark Priestley, and Crispin Rope

in Eniac in Action: Making and Remaking the Modern Computer

This chapter explores the construction and initial use of ENIAC during 1944 and 1945. It highlights the challenges of procuring components in the wartime environment, from wire and steel to ... More

This chapter explores the construction and initial use of ENIAC during 1944 and 1945. It highlights the challenges of procuring components in the wartime environment, from wire and steel to custom-built power supplies and high precision resistors. ENIAC was built by a forgotten, almost exclusively female, team of “wiremen.” The project was repeatedly delayed, requiring contract renegotiations. The chapter then introduces machine’s initial cohort of six female operators, putting their work into the broader context of labor in applied mathematics. In concludes with a description of some of the challenges, including a flood, faced by the team as it worked to debug ENIAC as it struggled to run a calculation for Los Alamos intended to determine the viability of Edward Teller’s design for a “Super” fusion weapon.Less

Religious Studies: Whither (Wither) and Why?

Jonathan Z. Smith and Christopher I. Lehrich

in On Teaching Religion: Essays by Jonathan Z. Smith

This chapter presents Jonathan Z. Smith's assessment of the state of religions studies in the US. He first provides some generalizations about religious studies, including how professional ... More

This chapter presents Jonathan Z. Smith's assessment of the state of religions studies in the US. He first provides some generalizations about religious studies, including how professional associations seem to foster localisms of every stripe, thus undercutting the very function that requires their existence; that religious studies are vulnerable to economic forces; and the lack of theoretical and professional discourse to mitigate and negotiate the debates over religion. He then focuses on a 1993 crisis involving religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania.Less

“Sifting and Winnowing”

Marjorie Heins

in Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom, and the Anti-Communist Purge

This chapter examines the origins of academic freedom as an American ideal. It considers how conflicts over the role of professors, the powers of trustees, and the very nature of the academic ... More

This chapter examines the origins of academic freedom as an American ideal. It considers how conflicts over the role of professors, the powers of trustees, and the very nature of the academic enterprise paved the way for the notion of college teaching as a profession and of the university as a venue for scholarly research and critical inquiry. In particular, it discusses the controversies surrounding the dismissal of Edward Ross, a professor from Stanford University, and Scott Nearing, an economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, as well as the involvement of the American Association of University Professors in Nearing's case. It also analyzes the first Red Scare that was used to generate public panic about an impending revolution, the role of the New York legislature in promoting fears about the dangers of communism, and the consequences for academic freedom.Less

Remembering ENIAC

Thomas Haigh, Mark Priestley, and Crispin Rope

in Eniac in Action: Making and Remaking the Modern Computer

Explores ENIAC’s cultural career and influence within different spheres from 1945 onward. Scholarly and popular contexts include contemporary newspaper reports and technical publications, its place ... More

Explores ENIAC’s cultural career and influence within different spheres from 1945 onward. Scholarly and popular contexts include contemporary newspaper reports and technical publications, its place in early computing texts, the long-running patent cases of the 1960s and 1970s, ENIAC’s place as a relic in key computer exhibitions, its anniversary celebrations in the mid-1990s, and the recent focus on its initial cohort of female operators. Influenced by the ideas of memory studies, this chapter documents the various and sometimes contradictory uses to which ENIAC has been put by different computing communities engaged in the construction of “useful pasts.”Less

1 “Sifting and Winnowing”

Marjorie Heins

in Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom, and the Anti-Communist Purge

This chapter examines the origins of academic freedom as an American ideal. It considers how conflicts over the role of professors, the powers of trustees, and the very nature of the academic ... More

This chapter examines the origins of academic freedom as an American ideal. It considers how conflicts over the role of professors, the powers of trustees, and the very nature of the academic enterprise paved the way for the notion of college teaching as a profession and of the university as a venue for scholarly research and critical inquiry. In particular, it discusses the controversies surrounding the dismissal of Edward Ross, a professor from Stanford University, and Scott Nearing, an economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, as well as the involvement of the American Association of University Professors in Nearing's case. It also analyzes the first Red Scare that was used to generate public panic about an impending revolution, the role of the New York legislature in promoting fears about the dangers of communism, and the consequences for academic freedom. Less

Commemorating Whitefield in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Andrew Atherstone

in George Whitefield: Life, Context, and Legacy

This chapter examines the commemoration of George Whitefield in popular culture, at particular geographical locations and at special anniversaries. In the centuries after his death he was remembered ... More

This chapter examines the commemoration of George Whitefield in popular culture, at particular geographical locations and at special anniversaries. In the centuries after his death he was remembered with memorial sermons, monuments, statues, churches, colleges, institutes, re-enactments, and evangelistic campaigns. Four chosen loci are analysed here: Newburyport in Massachusetts, where Whitefield is buried; Victorian England, especially London and Gloucestershire; Savannah, Georgia, and the University of Pennsylvania, in the 1910s and 1920s; and late twentieth-century England, revisiting Gloucester in the 1980s. The chapter shows how Whitefield has been reappropriated and reinterpreted by successive generations to serve contemporary concerns. His legacy is malleable and contested. What emerges is a portrait of an individual to whom many were attracted but for a multitude of different reasons, whether as a revivalist, Calvinist, educator, preacher, ecumenist, humanitarian, colonist, or saint.Less