From the Editor

The Editorial Board is pleased to present the second issue of the fifteenth volume of the Penn History Review, the Ivy League’s oldest undergraduate history journal. The Review continues to publish outstanding undergraduate papers based on original primary research. The Board is proud to feature scholarship that maintains our tradition of insightful and diverse historiography. These papers span not only centuries and geographic regions, but also across disciplines in the study of history. The authors published in this issue approach their historical inquiries with a particular respect to the larger theme of exploration. In addition to providing four exemplary student essays, this issue of the Review also offers a special section entitled ‘The Study of History.

Development and Implementation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education Programs for Middle School Students

Background: Sexual activity in adolescents carries population health risks such as pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection. Comprehensive sexual health education programs can be an effective strategy to help young people delay initiation of sexual intercourse, reduce the number of sexual partners, and increase condom and contraception use. As of the 2018/2019 school year, Burlington School District (BSD) middle schools did not have a comprehensive sexual health and safe relationship education program. Purpose: Development and dissemination of comprehensive sexual health and safe relationship curricula for Burlington School District (BSD) middle schools. Methods: This educational intervention was aimed at middle school health educators in Burlington, Vermont. Baseline informal interviews of health educators were completed to determine district demographics and needs, and health education curricular limitations and gaps. In conjunction with health educators, age appropriate curricula were developed. Following implementation, informal interviews with educators were conducted for curricular efficacy. Results: Two age-appropriate, science and evidence-based comprehensive sexual health curricula were completed and delivered to the 3 health educators, 2 principals, and 2 district curriculum directors. Informal interviews with educators revealed a positive reception of materials and lessons. Curricula are being implemented; at this time, 96 7th/8th graders have received 13 lessons and 106 6th graders have received an average of 5 lessons. Conclusions: A collaborative and integrative approach to sexual health education development between educators and health professionals is feasible. Sexual health and safe relationship programs in middle schools equip adolescents with knowledge as they prepare for young adulthood

The Aesthetic of the Ascetic

Kojo Minta, College \u2709, European History, Classical Studies, Religious Studies The Aesthetic of the Ascetic This study examines the casuistry of William Perkins in order to reconcile differing contemporary representations of the puritan tradition. These differing conceptions centered on whether puritan doctrine produced comfort, or despair. Puritan divines acknowledged that despair was a serious issue among their flock, and the varied works read and composed by the godly indicate a sustained engagement with despair, which was often precipitated by uncertainty over the assurance of one’s election. In Reformation theology, however, the doctrine of election was viewed as providing uncommon comfort to the believer. Reading Perkins’ casuistry allows us to understand that puritan divines did believe that the doctrines they espoused represented comfort, but that they also realized that, paradoxically, the more developed one’s conscience, the more likely one was to realize more fully the wretchedness of one’s sin and thus fall into despair. The casuistry of Perkins, specifically, his Cases of Conscience, are emblematic of a conscious and concerted effort on the part of Elizabethan divines in the 1590s both to preempt and treat a specific malady, despair, among the godly

It’s hard to like Baudelaire

‘It’s hard to like Baudelaire.’ We were looking at an exhibition. In glass cases, there were copies of Les Fleurs du mal in all the languages the curator – no doubt pressed for time – had been able to track down. The books were pinned at an angle, like butterflies, but in no obvious order, slumbering in the heat of an Athens afternoon… the titles: some you could easily recognize, others you might guess at, others, dustier than all the rest, were lost in the outer regions of unknown languages, unknown scripts that could have disguised anything. Las flores del mal, I fiori del male, As Flores do Mal, Ta Anthi tou Kakou

From the Editor

The Editorial Board is pleased to present the second issue of the fifteenth volume of the Penn History Review, the Ivy League’s oldest undergraduate history journal. The Review continues to publish outstanding undergraduate papers based on original primary research. The Board is proud to feature scholarship that maintains our tradition of insightful and diverse historiography. These papers span not only centuries and geographic regions, but also across disciplines in the study of history. The authors published in this issue approach their historical inquiries with a particular respect to the larger theme of exploration. In addition to providing four exemplary student essays, this issue of the Review also offers a special section entitled ‘The Study of History.

From the Editor

The Editorial Board is pleased to present the first issue of the sixteenth volume of the Penn History Review. The Review continues to publish outstanding undergraduate papers based on original primary research. This issue of the Review will be different from previous ones, in that its focus is on the intersection of Postcolonial, Subaltern and Transnational Studies within the study of History

The Reverse Diaspora: African Immigrants and the Return Home

The aim of this study, commissioned under the auspices of the Penn Humanities Forum, was twofold. First, to ascertain why there was an urge in the African immigrant community to return to their country of birth; or to return home, as it is referred to colloquially. And secondly, to discover how actualized this urge was. Was this wish to return home some fond, yet quixotic longing to return to what was remembered as old and familiar? Or was it the product of a more deep seated nostalgia, one supplemented by careful planning and serious intent? To answer this question I set out to craft a survey in which the questions, and answers, would provide insight into why this segment of America, many who are citizens, many who have been in the US for decades, would decide to leave and return to places they departed long ago

Świat kolorów ludzi paleolitu jako element intertekstualności „obrazów” w jaskiniach

The article discusses an issue of intertextuality of “pictures” in Palaeolithic art, and colour as its constituent. An important concept in these regards appeared to be that of an open and interdisciplinary approach towards an image, derived from the anthropology of images. In my opinion, essential is an “acting” of an image, based on so called “interimaginal relations”. It is legitimate when referring to prehistory, as numerous images reveal interpenetrating traces of other representations. Either consciously or unconsciously, some solutions had been used repeatedly, copying other representations, including selection of colours as a kind of stereotype deeply rooted in cultural memory. In cave “pictures” there were one or two main colours used, rarely three or even four. It has been acknowledged that the most important features of Palaeolithic “pictures” were movement, colour, especially expressed by a contrast of black and red or yellow, and also an illusion. They were also interrelated with a sound. The world of colours of contemporary people was a significant constituent of cultural meanings and of images “acting” in “mediatisation” of important existential contents between past and present