RESEARCH

The Data for Equitable Justice Lab

Data for Equitable Justice Lab is a research course that gives SP2 Master’s students an opportunity to analyze some of today’s most important social issues through data and, with instructor support, create a product for audiences well beyond the classroom. With guidance from lab instructors, students develop a project – either individually or as part of a team – to examine a contemporary social policy issue through the use of data, or to examine a social justice issue that concerns data or digital technology. In these projects, students will produce an op-ed, blog post, podcast, academic article, short film, or other product of their choosing that creates or contributes to contemporary policy discourse. This course helps students produce a data-focused work product that they can build on during their Capstone seminar.

News

A person adds a note to a colorful board with the question

Groundbreaking experiments with guaranteed income for formerly incarcerated individuals show promising results

Research from the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) reveals the profound potential of guaranteed income for individuals reentering communities after incarceration.

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Health capability profile offers public health tool for clinicians, health care professionals, social workers, policy makers, and individuals

With the goal of helping individuals, communities, and professionals identify how to promote people’s ability to be healthy and flourish, a new article coauthored by Dr. Jennifer Prah of SP2 and Perelman School of Medicine presents a methodology applied to major causes of death in the United States and other pressing public health issues.

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Dennis Culhane speaks at a podium

Improving lives through data: SP2’s Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy boosts national impact through students and alumni

Like a number of SP2 students and alumni, Sharon Zanti, PhD in Social Welfare ’24, has taken a path that is interwoven with SP2’s Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP). An initiative co-founded by Professor Dennis Culhane, AISP has paved the way for state and local governments to better support residents by responsibly connecting data.