Author: Liam Otten

Caroline Kita, associate professor of German and of comparative literature, and Samuel Shearer, assistant professor of African and African American studies, both in Arts & Sciences, have won research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In cynical times, optimism gets a bad rap. But in her new book “Infrastructural Optimism,” Linda C. Samuels argues that optimism is not simply a reflexive emotional state, but a critical driver of public investment, societal progress and — perhaps — democracy itself.

Jamie Harris, a graduate student in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, has won a Horizon Award for Emerging Artists as part of Ascend 2021, the National Black Arts Festival.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present a major new commissioned project by San Diego-based artist and filmmaker Nicole Miller, opening March 25. Known for her evocative videos and multimedia installations, Miller frequently addresses themes such as subjectivity, self-representation, agency and race.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present the first solo exhibition in the Midwest by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist Chitra Ganesh. In her multidisciplinary practice, Ganesh draws on Buddhist and Hindu iconography, science fiction, queer theory, comics, Surrealism, Bollywood posters and video games, combining them with her own imagery to present speculative visions of society in the past, present and future.

Anya Plutynski, associate professor of philosophy in Arts & Sciences, has won the 2021 Lakatos Award for her 2018 book “Explaining Cancer: Finding Order in Disorder.”

“Return,” the 2021 WashU Dance Theatre concert and the Performing Arts Department’s first fully staged dance production in nearly two years, will run in Edison Theatre Dec. 3-5.

Mark S. Weil, the E. Desmond Lee Professor Emeritus for Collaboration in the Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, died at his home in Jamestown, Rhode Island, Nov. 18. He was 82.

In “Confronting Urbanization,” a wall-sized drawing at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Petra Kempf combines copious data and mischievous symbolism to explore how smart phones, online commerce and global connectivity are reshaping the urban terrain.

In “The Science of Leaving Omaha,” playwright Carter W. Lewis brings sly humor and deep sympathy to a story of young people, stalled lives and the desperation for escape. Commissioned by WashU’s Performing Arts Department, the play will receive its world premiere Nov. 18-21.