Depression is one of the most prevalent psychological disorders and, as such, it is an important target for prevention efforts. Recent research has identified several risk factors for depression, including genetic vulnerabilities, family conflict, traumatic life experiences, pessimistic cognitive styles, and elevated depressive symptoms, which has paved the way for a wide range of prevention [...]

Krystyna Zywulska is best known as the author of Przezylam Oswiecim (I Survived Auschwitz), a candid and moving account of life and death in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Published in Poland in 1946, Zywulska’s memoir (listen: The Making of a Satirist) represents one of the earliest and most significant contributions to Polish literature on the Holocaust. Less known, [...]

Last year, the Philadelphia City Council passed a bill requiring the licensing of tour guides in the historic area of the city. The legislation created a requirement for guides to be periodically tested on their historical knowledge. Some of the debate around the legislation was predictably concerned with the size and prerogatives of government and [...]

On October 9, I left the United States on a remarkable journey. Just three weeks earlier, Natasha Franceschi ’96 had e-mailed Swarthmore’s Political Science Department, asking if we had a faculty member who could speak about the upcoming United States presidential election—in Kazakhstan. Natasha, who had taken my American Politics class in fall 1992 (the [...]

In addition to course descriptions and information about his research interests, Associate Professor of Biology Colin Purrington’s Web page has a “bonus feature.” Click on an image of Charles Darwin and you arrive at his “Evolution Outreach Projects—Part of the Axis of Evo.”
Purrington’s bonus site provides resources for teachers, parents, and others who believe that [...]

When E.M. Forster famously wrote his “Only connect … ” epigraph to Howard’s End, he was exhorting his readers to connect the prose and the passion of life, to live life fully with others. Sociologists might also be said to live under the “Only connect…” dictum, but they derive a different meaning from it. The [...]