Dr. Erik Wibbels
Faculty Director, CURF
Erik Wibbels is the Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of PDRI/DevLab@Penn. His current major projects include research on the human impact of US deportations of Central Americans; studies on the impact of refugees on social cohesion in Kenya and South Sudan; the Machine Learning for Peace project, which measures and forecasts dynamics in civil society at high frequency; and an attempt to use NLP to measure social and political responses to climate change around the world.
In his role with PDRI/DevLab@Penn, Wibbels also works with governments, international donors, and their implementing partners to improve the design and evaluation of development programming and engage in policy-relevant research around the world. His lab is currently leading an initiative with the World Bank, International Office of Migration, UNHCR and others to understand the impact of refugees and displaced populations on the communities and politics of the places they arrive. As part of its educational mission, PDRI/DevLab works with Pre- and Post-Doctoral Fellows, Ph.D., MA, and undergraduate students through a combination of applied research, internships, and coursework.
Dr. Wibbels' Faculty Site
Dr. Heather Sharkey
Faculty Director, Scholars Programs
Heather J. Sharkey earned her BA degree from Yale in Anthropology and PhD from Princeton in History. She was a Marshall Scholar and received an MPhil degree from the University of Durham in England. As a historian of the Middle East and North Africa, she has published books and articles on the modern history of the Nile Valley (Egypt, Sudan, and South Sudan) and on the national and religious communities of the British and Ottoman empires. At Penn she teaches seminars on subjects ranging from the history of food to soft power politics and migration. In her classes, Dr. Sharkey introduces students to the Penn Libraries and the Penn Museum, showing them how to use materials such as objects, rare or unusual books (including cookbooks), and archival documents in research. Believing in the value of sharing knowledge with broader publics, she writes for Wikipedia and has taught Penn students to do the same. In the University Scholars program, Dr. Sharkey looks forward to working with students from all four of Penn’s undergraduate schools as they engage in the exhilarating process of pursuing independent research, developing their ideas and arguments, and publishing their original work.
Faculty Page