We’re the Graduate Division

Home to more than 30 graduate groups spanning the humanities and social and natural sciences, the Graduate Division at Penn Arts & Sciences is here to support your research.

Create New Knowledge

Home to expert faculty, archives, and state-of-the art equipment, Penn Arts & Sciences will help you grow into a leader in your field.

At the Frontiers

Our graduate groups offer a rigorous education, guiding students as they pursue advanced research and begin to make their own original contributions at the frontiers of knowledge.

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News & Announcements

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Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowships

This fellowship program provides opportunities for doctoral candidates to engage in full-time dissertation research abroad in modern foreign languages and area studies. Internal application deadline: March 19, 2021.

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2021 Penn Grad Talks

For the past four years, the Penn community has gathered in late February for an afternoon of TED Talk-style presentations by Penn Arts & Sciences graduate students representing the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Professional Master’s programs.

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Extended funding for SAS Doctoral Students

We hope you are navigating the last weeks of this semester and looking forward to a much-needed break.

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Big Ideas for Strange Times

A series featuring short lectures on life’s bigger questions from Penn Arts & Sciences experts, including Ph.D. Candidates Aylin Malcolm (English), Sara Ray (History and Sociology of Science), and Angelina Eimannsberger (Comparative Literature and Literary Theory).

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Extended funding for SAS Doctoral Students

As you know, SAS has made the difficult decision to pause school-funded PhD admissions for the 2021-22 academic year. Some graduate groups regularly support students with external grants and so may be able to admit graduate students, albeit in smaller numbers.

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Resources and Emergency Funding for Graduate Students

Several new initiatives have been implemented to address broader issues affecting graduate and professional students and to provide you with support both immediately and in the longer term.

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Graduate Groups

Learn about our 33 graduate groups in the humanities and social and natural sciences.

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Grad Students in the News

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American Muslims are under watch, even in research

Hajer Al-Faham, Ph.D. candidate in political science, finds that disproportionate surveillance of American Muslims stifles academic research.

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How extreme temperature swings in deserts sir sand and dust

Andrew Gunn, PhD Candidate in Earth and Environmental Science, studies the geomorphology of desert sands to highlight the way ice, water, and air mold and transform Earth’s landscapes.

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Nationalism in Times of Crisis

Doctoral candidates Mike Gadomski and Dylan Manson examine whether it’s morally acceptable for the government to prioritize its own people’s interests and needs during a global pandemic.

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Insights into new ‘dials’ for controlling a material’s magnetism

Zhuoliang Ni, graduate student in Physics, conducted new research demonstrating how small amounts of strain can be used to control a material’s properties, with possible applications ranging from spintronic devices to faster hard drives.

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In These Times: Black lives and the call for justice

Breanna Moore, Ph.D. Candidate in History, contributed to Season 2 of Penn Arts & Sciences' 'In These Times' podcast.

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Developing a new platform for DNA sequencing

Yung-Chien Killian Chou, Ph.D. Candidate in Physics and member of Drndic Lab, discussed how solid state materials can be developed for large-scale automated sequencing by incorporating state-of-the-art fabrication and analytics.

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Penn Grad Talks

Each year, Penn Arts and Sciences presents Penn Grad Talks (formerly Grad Ben Talks): an afternoon of TED Talk-style presentations by graduate students representing the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Professional Master’s programs. Judges select winners in each of the four categories. There is also an Audience Choice Winner selected by online votes.

Watch the 2021 presentations