Insights and Impact Research, trends, and action

Insights and Impact

Q&A: The Fabric of Fiction

Les Whitehead, CAS/MA ’25, unravels the Betsy Ross myth and the real history of Philadelphia’s favorite flagmaker

Insights and Impact

The Mother of Reinvention

History professor Kate Haulman reveals how Mary Ball Washington was repeatedly refashioned to suit the evolving motives of the nation

Insights and Impact

All in the Family

Historian Karin Wulf, CAS/BA ’85, reveals that early America was built by deeply interconnected familial webs—not solitary individuals

Insights and Impact

A Private Life in the Public Eye

SPA’s Anita McBride chronicles how first ladies have balanced personal privacy and intense scrutiny to wield political and cultural influence

Insights and Impact

Flagging the Facts

US Census questions expose the complex history of identity in Gail Rebhan’s new AU Museum exhibit

Insights and Impact

America, Documented

Explore how the power of evolving language literally spoke the American experiment into being

Insights and Impact

Hearth and Liberty

Beyond the famous battlefields, the true fight for survival happened at home

Insights and Impact

3 Minutes on Fourth of July Fireworks 

From backyard sparklers to stadium-sized spectaculars, light the fuse on the history and science behind America’s favorite summer tradition

Insights and Impact

Q&A: Get Fired Up

Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action and former Sine fellow, aims to empower women of all ages