Every spring and fall, SAS faculty take a minute out on Locust Walk to share their perspectives on topics ranging from human history and the knowable universe, to fractions and fly-fishing.
Check out the Spring 2012 60-Second Lectures
Visit 60-Second Lectures on Facebook and on YouTube.
Browse through the speaker archive below to enjoy past lectures from this series.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I-J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U-V, W, Y-Z
A
Ted Abel
Brush Family Professor of Biology
“It’s Not a Dream, It’s a Memory: The Role of Sleep in Memory Storage”
September 21, 2011
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B
Vijay Balasubramanian
Merriam Term Assistant Professor of Physics
"The Knowable Universe"
September 28, 2005
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Herman Beavers
Associate Professor of English
"When Poetry Gets the Blues"
September 16, 2009
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Karen Beckman
Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Assistant Professor of Film Studies,
Department of History of Art
"Crash"
October 5, 2005
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Charles
Bernstein
Professor of English
"What Makes
a Poem a Poem?"
April 21, 2004
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Cristina Bicchieri
Professor, Department of Philosophy
“Social Norms”
April 20, 2005
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Nancy Bonini
Lucille B. Williams Term Professor of Biology
"Drosophila and Human Disease: How the Fly Provides Insight into Brain Disease and Injury"
September 9, 2009
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Philippe Bourgois
Richard Perry University Professor of Anthropology, and Family Medicine and Community Health
"Anthropology and Globalization: An Urgent Challenge and Responsibility"
September 30, 2009
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Rebecca Bushnell
Dean
of the College at Penn and Professor of English
"The Nature of Nature"
September 24, 2003
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Anthea Butler
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
"Writing the Right on What's 'Right'"
September 29, 2010
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C
Camille Charles
Associate Professor of Sociology
"An Open Letter to Mister Rogers"
April 25, 2007
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Paul Cobb
Associate Professor of Islamic History
"Crusading, Then and Now"
April 15, 2009
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D
Dennis DeTurck
Evan C Thompson Endowed Term Professor for Excellence in Teaching
"Down with Fractions!"
September 22, 2004
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Angela Duckworth
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Why Achievement Isn't "Normal"
September 23, 2009
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E
Jamal J. Elias
Class of 1965 Term Professor of Religious Studies
"Death and Body Fluids (or Why Religion is Important)"
September 26, 2007
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James English
Professor of English, Penn Humanities Forum Director
"Virtuality and the (Real) Humanities"
October 6, 2010
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F
Martha Farah
Bob and Arlene Kogod Term Professor in Psychology
"The Human Brain 2.0"
April 12, 2006
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Michael Gamer
Associate Professor of English
"Major Matters"
September 12, 2007
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Robert Ghrist
Andrea Mitchell University Professor
"Why Is Mathematics Useful?"
April 8, 2009
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Sarah Barringer Gordon
Arlin M. Adams Professor of Law and Professor of History
"A Constitutional Moment: Freedom of Religion in One Minute"
September 17, 2010
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David Grazian
Assistant
Professor of Sociology
"The Difference between
Blues and Jazz"
September 17, 2003
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Jeffrey Green
Assistant Professor of Political Science
"Attention Deficits"
April 28, 2010
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Campbell Grey
Assistant Professor of Classical Studies
"Is America Rome? Why Do You Ask?"
September 8, 2010
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H
Paul Hendrickson
Senior Lecturer, Creative Writing Program
"Why
Fly-Fishing Is a Zen Experience"
April 14, 2004
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Renata Holod
Professor, History of Art
"Site of Sight, Right of Sight, and Rite of Sight: Exploring the Cultures
of Seeing"
September 29, 2004
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Benjamin Horton
Assistant Professor, Earth and Environmental Science
"Climate in Crisis"
April 4, 2007
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J
John L. Jackson, Jr.
Richard Perry University Associate Professor of Communications and Anthropology
"Ethnography in the Age of Supercrunching"
April 23, 2008
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Daniel H. Janzen
Thomas G. and Louise E. DiMaura Endowed Term Professor in Conservation Biology
"How
to Read Wild Biodiversity: Barcode It"
September 15, 2004
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Douglas Jerolmack
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science
"The Life and Death of the Mississippi Delta"
April 21, 2010
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K
Jeffrey Kallberg
Professor of Music and Chair
"Chopin's Minute Waltz"
April 7, 2010
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Suvir Kaul
Professor of English
"The Humanities are in Crisis!
No, the Humanities are the Crisis!"
April 5, 2006
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Donald F. Kettl
Stanley I Sheerr Endowed Term Chair in the Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science
"Is American Government Obsolete? Lessons from Hurricane Katrina"
April 19, 2006
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Hans-Peter Kohler
Professor of Sociology
"Children - the Pursuit of Happiness?"
September 24, 2008
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Alan Charles Kors
George H. Walker Endowed Term Professor of History
"Human History"
April 19, 2006
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Bruce Kuklick
Jeannette P. and Roy F. Nichols Professor of History
"John F. Kennedy’s Sex Life"
September 3, 2003
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Demie Kurz
Co-Director, Women’s Studies Program
"How Women’s
Studies Can Save Your Life"
September 10, 2003
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Robert Kurzban
Assistant Professor of Psychology
"Hypocrisy: How Evolution Guarantees Human Inconsistency"
April 2, 2008
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L
William Labov
John H. and Margaret B. Fassitt Professor of Linguistics
"Language Change in Philadelphia"
September 20, 2006
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Beth Linker
Assistant Professor of History & Sociology of Science
"What's the Matter with American Exceptionalism?"
April 20, 2011
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Heather Love
M. Mark and Esther K. Watkins Assistant Professor in the Humanities
"Brokeback Nation"
April 18, 2007
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M
Irina Marinov
Lecturer, Department of Earth and Environmental Science
"Water and Future Climate Change"
March 23, 2011
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Antonio Merlo
Lawrence R. Klein Professor in Economics and Department Chair
"Economics"
April 14, 2010
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O
Brendan O’Leary
Lauder Professor of Political Science
“Why Share Power?"
September 16, 2011
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P
Kathy Peiss
Roy F. and Jeanette P. Nichols Professor of American History
"Beyond the Founding Fathers"
September 27, 2006
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Joshua Plotkin
Martin Meyerson Assistant Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies
April 22, 2009
"On the Stability of Life"
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Eve Trout Powell
Associate Professor of History
Imperialism in the Modern Middle East
October 10, 2007
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Samuel H. Preston
Frederick J. Warren Professor of Demography
"U.S. Military Mortality in Iraq"
September 27, 2006
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R
Adrian Raine
Richard Perry University Professor of Criminology & Psychiatry
September 10, 2008
"Is It Wrong To Punish Prisoners?"
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Guthrie Ramsey
Associate Professor of Music History
“Can the Musical Object Speak?”
April 11, 2007
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Philip A. Rea
Professor of Biology
“Intracellular Landfills”
September 13, 2006
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S
Eric Schelter
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
The Chemistry and Geopolitics of the Rare Earth Elements
April 13, 2011
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Susan Schneider
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
"The Fundamental Nature of Consciousness"
April 16, 2008
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Gino Segre
Professor of Physics
Faust in Copenhagen:
A 60 Second Tour of Quantum Mechanics, Politics, and Science Humor
September 19, 2007
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Heather J. Sharkey
Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
“Choosing History: A Philosophy of the Past”
September 14, 2011
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Rogers Smith
Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science
"Why Supreme Court Decisions Are Hard to Read, and Why We Should Read Them Anyway"
September 17, 2008
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Rogers Smith
Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political
Science
"How to Protect Civil Liberties
While Protecting Against Terrorism"
April 28, 2004
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Wendy Steiner
Richard L. Fisher Professor of English
"Beauty"
September 21, 2005
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Peter Struck
Assistant Professor, Department of Classics
“The Unknown”
April 6, 2005
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T
Evelyn Thomson
Assistant Professor of Physics
"Particles from Proton Collisions in 60 Seconds"
April 1, 2009
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Sarah Tishkoff
David and Lynn Silfen University Associate Professor of Genetics and Biology
"Are humans still evolving?"
Septemer 22, 2010
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Mark Trodden
Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics
"The Cosmos as a Microscope: Reading the Laws of Nature in the Night Sky"
April 6, 2011
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W
Michael Weisberg
Associate Professor of Philosophy
“Lying Your Way to the Truth”
September 28, 2011
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Liliane Weissberg
Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor in the Arts
and Sciences, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
“Freudian Time”
April 13, 2005
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Z
Tukufu Zuberi
Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, Department of Sociology
"Divided and Dangerous: Human History from a Different
Angle"
September 14, 2005
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