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Contact information

Deputy Director for Academic Programs
hpittman@sas.upenn.edu p.(215) 898-4000

About the Program
Each of these conferences will bring together ten to fifteen scholars who have reached a critical stage in their consideration of a shared problem. Through intense face-to-face deliberations in a setting detached from the daily demands of their professional lives, they will have a rare opportunity to reach a more integrated and nuanced understanding of their endeavors.

The conference structure will be driven by papers circulated among participants at least a month in advance of the conference. These will be the starting point for the discussions held in closed sessions. Initial discussions will be followed by a consideration of cross-cutting issues and will conclude with an overarching synthesis of ideas. The conferences will be held at Penn at comfortable sites with meeting rooms and dining spaces that are conducive to lively interaction. Every effort will be made to create an atmosphere in which participants can meet without interruption or distraction. Penn Museum will provide coach airfare, lodging, and all meals in addition to covering all of the administrative costs.

Following the conference the ideas and thinking will be disseminated through three different media. Immediately after the conference, Penn Museum will host a lecture or forum at which one or several of the participants will speak to the interested community and wider public about the ideas discussed at the gathering. Then a website will facilitate the dissemination of the ideas and thinking to both the general public and interested professional communities. Finally, and most importantly, the participants will rewrite their papers, taking into account the ideas generated and shared during the conference. This group of papers, edited and introduced by the conference organizer, will be submitted to Penn Museum Publications for peer review and publication in a timely manner.

Background Information
For more than a century, a core mission of Penn Museum has been to foster research that leads to new understanding about human culture. For much of the 20th century, this research took the form of expeditions, more than 400 of them, to all parts of the globe. Scholars brought back both data and artifacts which, through ongoing analysis, continue to help shed light on early, recent, and contemporary societies—on what it means to be human.

Penn Museum seeks to reinvigorate its commitment to research focused on questions about human societies. To generate new knowledge and frameworks for understanding, today’s best research requires more than data and collections. More than ever, it depends on collaboration among communities of scholars investigating shared problems using distinct lines of evidence or different modes of analysis. Recognizing the importance of collaborative and multidisciplinary endeavors in the social sciences, Penn Museum has launched the International Research Conference Program.