Perry World House Perry World House Annual Report 2020-21

October 1, 2021
By Perry World House

Our 2020-21 Annual Report, themed 'Connect | Connecting | Connected,' looks back at an academic year like no other for Perry World House, and explores how we sustained our existing connections and built new ones amid the pandemic. 

As COVID-19 raged around the world in early 2020 and led to the suspension of in-person operations on the leafy campus at the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, the pandemic also crystallized how connected Perry World House had become in only five years of operation. Even as the doors to our physical space closed, we remained connected—and made new connections—in many other ways: our events went virtual, our student programs continued via Zoom, and our ideas spread by reports, tweets, news articles, and broadcasts around the world.

Five years after our grand opening, Perry World House is far more than a glass and limestone building on campus. Our relationships run deep along Locust Walk—into classrooms where our visiting fellows lecture, dorm rooms where students participate in our latest events, and labs where faculty and postdoctoral fellows are working on crucial advances in their fields. From there, they continue outward—along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor to government offices in Washington and UN headquarters in New York, beamed via satellites to policy centers around the world, and included in articles in The New York TimesInternational Security, and The Economist.

As we enter the second half of our first decade, Perry World House will maintain and deepen these connections, and make new ones, as we carry out our critical mission. Our work—including our two research themes, The Future of the Global Order: Power, Technology, and Governance and Global Shifts: Urbanization, Migration, and Demography—will connect Penn with leaders from around the world to develop and advance innovative policy proposals. At the same time, we will continue to connect students from all of Penn’s 12 schools with the knowledge and opportunities to help them live, work, and thrive in the world today.

Click here to read our 2020-21 Annual Report.