Penn State University Libraries presented the 2025 Undergraduate Research Awards: Excellence in Information Literacy honors to 104 students at 20 undergraduate Penn State campuses this spring.
Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Viktoriia Vozharenko moved to Lancaster with her family in 2018. Despite living in the U.S. for a short time before graduating from high school, she was accepted to all the colleges to which she applied, but she said that Penn State was her first choice.
Three Penn State Berks students — Samantha Acker, Kimberly Nicholas and Michelle Surine — received accolades and honors for their research presentation at the Eastern States Communication Association (ECA) in Buffalo, New York, from March 27 to 30.
Faculty librarians conduct scholarly research across disciplines and with far-reaching impacts. Penn State University Libraries faculty librarians’ research is not only impactful, it is highly productive, as evidenced by a study published in the July 2023 issue of College & Research Libraries, the official, peer-reviewed scholarly research journal of the Association of College and Research Libraries.
Student innovation competitions, exhibitions and training programs are a crucial part of the university environment because they provide students with valuable experience that isn’t always achieved in the classroom. Researchers from Penn State Berks and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University recently received a $400,000 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation for a project focused on advancing equity among underrepresented students in STEM-related innovation competitions and programs.
When Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for president, two questions were at the forefront of social media memes: Who would she select for her running mate, and had Maya Rudolph cleared her schedule to reprise her Harris impression for Saturday Night Live? Politics permeates pop culture, and vice versa, especially during presidential elections. Penn State News spoke with three faculty experts to learn more about how people can best parse politics in pop culture, as well as how to take care in a saturated media landscape.
How do you instill an appreciation of biodiversity and a desire to preserve ecosystems in the community? A team of Penn State Berks and Lehigh Valley professors tackled this very question through a multidisciplinary research project that involved participants in a meaningful community activity, linking science and the arts.
A new book written by Penn State Berks Professor of Latin American Studies Kirwin Shaffer explores how historical forces, people, and ideas traveled across political borders and bodies of water to shape Caribbean history. Titled "A Transnational History of the Modern Caribbean: Popular Resistance across Borders," the book discusses many of the same issues that are timely today, including same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights.
"Gender and Domestic Violence: Contemporary Legal Practice and Intervention Reforms," a new book edited and authored by Brenda Russell, professor of psychology at Penn State Berks, and John Hamel, licensed clinical social worker, practitioner, researcher, and editor-in-chief of the journal Partner Abuse, presents empirical research findings and reform recommendations for prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, policymakers, and intervention providers with the aim of rectifying shortcomings in legal and law enforcement responses to domestic violence.
The Consortium on Substance Use and Addiction recently hosted the first annual Substance Use Disorder Stigma Reduction Summit at University Park. The event brought in researchers, practitioners and government partners from across the nation to consider research, policy and practice around the issue of stigma reduction in numerous fields like criminal justice and healthcare.
