The College of Liberal and Professional Studies is pleased to recognize the LPS students selected to participate in the Professional Master’s Program category of this year’s Penn Grad Talks. The competition, which took place virtually during the week of March 21, features TED Talk-style presentations by Penn Arts and Sciences graduate students from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and professional master’s programs. Winners from each program category plus an overall audience choice awardee were announced on social media on Friday, March 25.
This year’s professional master’s programs category winner was Yansong Li (Master of Environmental Studies `22), who discussed how circular economy entrepreneurs improve the environment while creating social and economic value through environmentally sustainable businesses. Watch Yansong’s presentation on Vimeo.
The 2022 LPS student presentations:
Narratives of Othering: The Role of Art and Heritage in the Construction of Cultural Boundaries
Elise Jacobsen, a Master of Liberal Arts student, reminds us there is no single perspective through which art and history can be understood. Through three case studies, she explores how throughout history, heritage has been manipulated to assign power and create narratives of otherness to achieve certain actors’ goals.
Laws With Loopholes: How Same-Sex Couples Are Cut Out of the Parenting Equation
Collin Kather, a Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Health student, talks about the challenges, injustices, and legalized discrimination that same-sex couples still face across the United States on the various paths toward building families and becoming parents.
The Science of Equity: Using Science to Create More Equitable Mind-Body Behavioral Patterns
Nakisha Renée Jones, a Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences student, investigates how, from a behavioral science and neuroscience perspective, flawed mental systems create flawed social systems and inequities. We can, however, change how we perceive the world with practical tools and practice to create a more equitable society.
Witnessing Circularity: Circular Economy Lessons from Amsterdam - Program category winner
Yansong Li, a Master of Environmental Studies student, explains how traditional linear economies function by extracting natural resources and producing waste, while circular economies are designed to be regenerative and restorative, and feed waste materials back into the economy as resources. He shares several business examples from Amsterdam that exemplify a holistic interpretation of circular economies, including a focus on local engagement and social impact.
HIV and the Brain: Implications of Long-Term Antiretroviral Therapy for Patients
Emily Kurtyan, a Master of Chemical Sciences student, has been conducting lab research on HIV therapies at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She discusses an experiment that investigates the possible link between lifesaving antiretroviral therapies (ARTs)—which inhibit HIV replication and greatly reduce neurocognitive effects of the virus—and the persistence of neurodegeneration in many HIV patients.
Congratulations to Yansong and to all of the LPS students who participated in this year’s Penn Grad Talks!
Watch all the LPS student presentations with opening remarks from Vice-Dean Nora Lewis, on Vimeo >
