Author: Neil Schoenherr

She will maintain the parents Web page and work on publications such as the parents handbook, Bear Facts and the parents newsletter.

Photo by Kevin LowderFive members of the WUSTL police force jumped into the frigid waters of Lake Saint Louis Feb. 4 during the Law Enforcement Torch Run Polar Bear Plunge.

No one is born highly creative; creativity takes hard work.Do you desire to be a more creative person but don’t think you have the “creative” gene? You may have some hard work ahead, but it’s possible to become the next Walt Disney or Martha Stewart, says an expert on creativity at Washington University in St. Louis. “No one is born highly creative,” says R. Keith Sawyer, Ph.D., associate professor of education and of psychology, both in Arts & Sciences. “Psychologists studying creativity have discovered that it is based on cognitive processes we all share. Creativity is not the result of some magic brain region that some people have and others don’t.” Oxford Press has just released Sawyer’s latest book, “Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation,” a seminal overview of the history of creativity and of research into traits that highly creative people all share.

The new ages are set between 32,000-33,000 years old, and perhaps slightly older; in 1998, the fossils had been radiocarbon dated to 28,000-29,000 years.

Photo by Mary ButkusJohn Baugh, director of African and African American Studies, was recently installed as the first Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts & Sciences.

Many Americans can guess a caller’s ethnic background from their first hello on the telephone. Can the sound of your voice be used against you?However, the inventor of the term “linguistic profiling” has found that when a voice sounds African-American or Mexican-American, racial discrimination may follow. In studying this phenomenon through hundreds of test phone calls, John Baugh, Ph.D., the Margaret Bush Wilson Professor and director of African and African American Studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has found that many people made racist, snap judgments about callers with diverse dialects. Some potential employers, real estate agents, loan officers and service providers did it repeatedly, he says. Long before they could evaluate callers’ abilities, accomplishments, credit rating, work ethic or good works, they blocked callers based solely on linguistics.

Cornel West, one of America’s most prominent public intellectuals, will give a talk called “Democracy Matters” for the Assembly Series at 4 p.m. Feb. 2 in Graham Chapel. West is the Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion at Princeton University, but he is also well-known for his many contributions to pop culture. He played […]

More than 3,000 people in the United States, including 30 in the St. Louis area, need a bone marrow transplant for a chance at a healthy life.

Richard J. Smith’s path to becoming chair of the Department of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences wasn’t a conventional one. But that suits Smith just fine. His job isn’t necessarily conventional, either. “My work is unusual for a physical anthropologist,” says Smith, Ph.D., the Ralph E. Morrow Distinguished University Professor. “I basically do not go […]

Photo by Mary ButkusThe Stress-Free Zone is held each semester during reading week and features massages, healthy snacks, games, movies and art projects.