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Get to Know Some of our Distinguished Arts and Sciences Faculty
Professors in the School of Arts and Sciences share an eagerness for teaching, learning and creating new knowledge that makes Penn a dynamic place for study and research. In these streaming video files, faculty members offer a glimpse into their scholarly passions and explain why Penn is their intellectual home.
Rebecca Bushnell
Dennis DeTurck
Timothy Corrigan
Paul Sniegowski
E. Ann Matter
Peter Struck
Tukufu Zuberi
Rebecca Bushnell
Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor
Department of English
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A scholar of early modern English literature, culture and history, Dean Bushnell has served on the Penn faculty since 1982 and is also a member of the graduate groups in comparative literature and history. After becoming dean of the College in 2003, she sought to improve the undergraduate experience by creating summer research internships that place Penn students in Philadelphia’s elite arts and culture institutions. Her most recent book, Green Desire: Imagining Early Modern English Gardens (2003), is a study of early English gardening manuals as works of fiction.
Click here to meet Dean Bushnell.
Click here to visit Dean Bushnell’s information page.
Click here to read “The Canonization” by John Donne, which Dean Bushnell mentions in the video as having sparked her lifelong love of poetry.
Dennis DeTurck
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Evan C Thompson Professor for Excellence in Teaching
Department of Mathematics
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Noted among his colleagues for his commitment to undergraduate education, Dean DeTurck has long advocated for innovations in the College curriculum. He is the recipient of many teaching awards, including the prestigious Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award, which honors college or university teachers “whose teaching effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their own institutions.” A professor of mathematics who has authored more then 50 papers on partial differential equations and differential geometry, he also is managing editor of the American Mathematical Society’s Contemporary Mathematics book series.
Click here to meet Dean DeTurck.
Click here to visit Dean DeTurck’s information page.
Timothy Corrigan
Professor
Department of English
Director
Cinema Studies
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An English professor and internationally respected film scholar, Dr. Corrigan is the author of several books, including A Cinema without Walls and New German Film, as well as standard textbooks like The Film Experience and Writing about Film. He has crafted a cinema studies program at Penn that offers students the opportunity to investigate major filmmakers, to contrast different national cinemas, to explore the economic and political forces behind the movies, to measure the relationship of film to other arts and literatures, and to test their creative talents with digital video and screenwriting. Dr. Corrigan's research focuses on modern American and international cinema.
Click here to meet Dr. Corrigan.
Click here to read a story about cinema studies at Penn.
Paul Sniegowski
Associate Professor
Graduate Chair
Department of Biology
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Dr. Sniegowski studies genetic mutations that get passed down through generations of laboratory bacteria. An expert in population and evolutionary genetics, he has been outspoken in his criticism of the Intelligent Design movement. Dr. Sniegowski received the 2005 Ira Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching. Created in 1983, it is the highest teaching honor in the School of Arts and Sciences. In addition, a committee of undergraduate biology majors chose him for the 2002-2003 Excellence in Teaching Award based on nominations from students. He has also served as a freshman advisor and participated in the Penn Reading Project.
Click here to meet Dr. Sniegowski.
E. Ann Matter
Professor
Department of Religious Studies
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Dr. Matter is the chair of the religious studies department and a widely published scholar. Her work encompasses both the history of interpretations of the Bible and studies of women in early modern Italy. Arriving at Penn in 1976, she became a Guggenheim Fellow and received Yale’s Whiting Fellowship for the Humanities and two research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. Matter directed the Women’s Studies Program from 1981 to 1983, during which time she interviewed former faculty members who helped shape the presence of women at the University.
Click here to meet Dr. Matter.
Peter Struck
Assistant Professor
Department
of Classical Studies
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Dr. Struck is interested in Greek and Roman theories of signs and interpretation, such as divination, rites like throwing dice, translating dreams and consulting oracles. His mythology course has won praise for his instructive skill as well as the class Web site, which he devised as a precursor – not a postscript – to his lecture. Dr. Struck’s engaging classes and innovative use of the Web caused the University to honor him with the 2004 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, Penn’s highest citation for classroom excellence. His other interests include ancient mythology, medicine, and magic.
Click here to meet Dr. Struck.
Click here to read a story about Dr. Struck’s teaching in Penn Arts & Sciences Magazine.
Tukufu Zuberi
Lasry Family Endowed Professor of Race Relations
Department of Sociology
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If Dr. Zuberi looks familiar, you may have seen him as co-host of the PBS television series History Detectives. On the show, he is one of four investigators who tracks down the origins of historical mysteries. On campus, he divides his time between the sociology department and Center for Africana Studies, of which he is the director. Dr. Zuberi researches issues of population and social status on the African continent and across the African Diaspora. He acknowledges African studies for transforming the notion that all civilization flows from Western society.
Click here to
meet Dr. Zuberi.
Click here to visit him on
PBS History Detectives.