Author: Ken Duenke

Deanna M. Barch, Ph.D., doesn’t want much — she just aims to discover the cause of schizophrenia and develop a way to prevent it. Barch, associate professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences and assistant professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine, devotes much of her research to studying schizophrenia in order to better […]

According to Charity Navigator, Washington University leads the list of consistently excellent charitable-giving colleges and universities in terms of financial efficiency. In its most recent annual rankings, Washington University received an overall rating of 69.58 out of a possible 70 points in Charity Navigator’s financial evaluation, putting it in the top spot among the 50 four-star rated academic institutions.

A bequest from the estate of Isidore and Edith Silver will establish the Isidore and Edith Silver Washington University Fellowship Fund, it was announced by Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. The Silvers bequeathed more than $1 million in support of fellowships for doctoral students of French Renaissance in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures in Arts & Sciences, the department where Silver taught from 1957 until his retirement in 1975.

Photo courtesy of Tom Paule PhotographyMarrying for love … and money.Becoming wealthy and creating a happy family are two key components to achieving the American Dream, but do marriage and children have any impact on your chances of becoming rich? “Marriage substantially increases a person’s likelihood of becoming affluent,” says Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of a study out this month that looks at earnings over the course of a person’s lifetime. “Having children, however, significantly lowers the probability of becoming wealthy for all people,” Rank adds.

Everett Mendelsohn, one of America’s foremost historians of science, will deliver the Thomas Hall Lecture titled “Dolly and the Historians: Science, Politics and Ethics of Cloning” as part of the Washington University Assembly Series at 4 p.m., Thursday, November 13. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be held in Rebstock Hall, Room 215, located just east of Mallinckrodt Center (6445 Forsyth Blvd) on the Washington University campus.

Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations global development network, will be delivering the Stein Lecture in Ethics as part of the Assembly Series lectures at Washington University at 11 a.m. on Wed., Nov. 12 in Graham Chapel. The chapel is located just north of Mallinckrodt Center (6445 Forsyth Blvd.) on the Washington University campus. Assembly Series lectures are free and open to the public. The title of his talk is “Six Months after Iraq: Why the UN Matters.”

Ornette Coleman, inspiration for successful judging.Although United States laws attempt to safeguard the rights and interests of minorities, the subordination of socially disfavored groups persists in part because of informal structures and networks that have the effect of perpetuating social inequality. Christopher Bracey, an expert in the fields of American race relations and civil rights and associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, says that judges must respond to these destructive patterns of social and economic stratification through their interpretation of the law, or successful judging. In his article, “Adjudication, Antisubordination, and the Jazz Connection” (Alabama Law Review, Vol. 54), Bracey says inspiration on how to realize democracy through judging can be found through the free jazz movement, more specifically, the work of Ornette Coleman.

Bernstein”The settlement of the grocery strike in St. Louis sends conflicting messages to the parties involved in similar strikes in California, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky,” says Neil Bernstein, an expert in labor law and legal issues relating to striking workers and a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “In St. Louis, the Union did achieve an important victory in convincing the employers to eliminate the annual deductibles that they tried to impose for the first time. On the other hand, the contract requires them to make larger co-payments for doctor visits and prescription drugs.”

RugerTheodore Ruger, an expert in constitutional law and an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses freedom of religion with Mike Sampson of KWMU’s “St. Louis on the Air” on Nov. 3. This show is part of a three part series on the First Ammendment in the 21st century. Listen to the program from the KWMU Web site.

Jerome A. Cohen, a leading American specialist on law in the People’s Republic of China, will present a lecture on “Criminal Justice & U.S.-China Relations” at 3 p.m. Nov. 10 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall.The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Whitney R. Harris Institute for Global Legal Studies at the School of Law. A question and answer session and reception will follow the lecture.