Author: Liam Otten

“Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Politics of Passing” (2014), by Washington University in St. Louis associate professor Jeffrey McCune, PhD, has been named Book of the Year by the National Communications Association’s GLBTQ Communications Studies Division and Caucus on GLBTQ Concerns.

Saul Noam Zaritt, PhD, the Friedman Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has launched a new digital journal of Yiddish studies.

In response to the Syrian crisis, many in St. Louis have called for the city to increase its acceptance of refugees. Architectural historian Michael Allen says existing housing stock could easily accommodate thousands of new residents.

A play is a text but also a performance. Dance is a discipline but also a communication. To be truly understood, both must be experienced live. For its 2015-16 season, the Performing Arts Department will present classic comedy and contemporary drama as well as original works by faculty and students.

Art fulfills many roles. One is to start conversation. Beginning Friday, Sept. 11, and continuing throughout the fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present nearly two dozen free public events, ranging from lectures, gallery talks and panel discussions to concerts, film screenings and all-ages activities.

ISSUES Magazine has won the 2015 Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals from the Center of Architecture in New York. Launched in 2012, the magazine explores links between architecture, design and social issues.

Architect and structural engineer Guy Nordenson, who began his career as a draftsman for R. Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi, will launch the Sam Fox School’s fall Public Lecture Series with a free talk Monday, Sept. 14. In all, the series will feature 10 presentations by nationally and internationally known artists, architects, curators and designers.

The gesture is optimistic. The weapon has been removed from the streets, sliced in two and encased in frosted bubbles. In “SMAC” (2014), artist duo CLUB S+S offers an aesthetic antibody to the gun violence epidemic. On Sept. 16, the Sam Fox School will present “SMAC” as part of “Guns in the Hands of Artists,” opening in the Des Lee Gallery in downtown St. Louis.

From the fall of communism to the rise of digital technology, the 1990s were marked by a series of radical transformations. This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will explore some of the era’s most pressing social, political and technological issues with “Rotation 2: Contemporary Art from the Peter Norton Gift.”

Isabel Trautwein, violinist for the Cleveland Orchestra, will launch the Danforth University Center Chamber Music Series at Washington University in St. Louis with a free concert Sept. 21. Also featured this fall will be early music ensemble The Newberry Consort; a world premier by Washington University composer Christopher Stark; and the Songs of Africa Ensemble.