Humanities & Society

Researchers at the Center for Social Development in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis are launching a new initiative to help shape the future of wealth-building policy in the United States, with a focus on giving children stronger financial foundations that can last a lifetime.

WashU Law’s judicial clerkship program continues to grow. Graduates clerk for judges across the country, with placements in 36 states and every federal circuit, including the Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Countless incoming college students are wondering if they will find “their people” at college. Fannie Bialek, a WashU philosopher and friendship expert, tells students they might not know yet who “their people” are — and that’s a good thing.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis argues that policymakers should enact gradual cutoffs for public benefits such as food assistance or healthcare. The change could help both families and employers by allowing low-wage workers to earn more without losing critical support systems.

Jin Huang, the Irving Louis Horowitz Professor in Social Policy at the WashU Brown School, has been appointed to serve on the advisory board of the Katherine A. Kendall Institute for International Social Work within the Council on Social Work Education.

As Americans work longer than previous generations, employers have an opportunity to create workplaces that support employees of all ages, according to a new article by Cal Halvorsen, associate professor at the WashU Brown School.

The silkworm moth, whose caterpillars have been used in silk production since antiquity, may have been brought to southern Central Asia 4,000 years ago — nearly 2,000 years earlier than previously assumed — according to new research from WashU.

Jason Jabbari, an assistant professor at the WashU Brown School, has received a one-year $300,000 grant from the Popolo Family Foundation to study why some students with limited resources persist and thrive in college while others leave before earning a degree.

Helina Woldekiros was the first female Ethiopian archaeologist to earn a doctoral degree at an American institution. Now an associate professor of archaeology in WashU Arts & Sciences, she is exploring the culture of the kingdom that gave the world coffee.