Humanities & Society

Mothers who are overweight or obese tend to underestimate the weights of their obese children, according to a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

There is a vast amount of evidence from transgender people’s lives that bathrooms are often the site of abuse and trauma for them, not the other way around, says an expert on transgender aging at Washington University in St. Louis.

Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. citizens gets food poisoning every year, but very few report it. Monitoring Twitter for food-poisoning tweets and replying to them could improve foodborne illness reporting, according to a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

President Donald Trump has vowed to “destroy” the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 provision under which tax-exempt entities such as churches and charities cannot participate in any political campaign. Doing so might actually be cause for concern among the religious organizations pushing for its repeal, says a constitutional law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Here, in celebration of Valentine’s Day, we present another of the paradoxes, sometimes called the Picky Suitor problem: Can you guess the odds that you will find your one and only among the billions of people on the planet?

Greg Magarian, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and noted expert on constitutional law, discusses what he sees as three prominent First Amendment issues that are important to emphasize right now: freedom of the press, proposed state laws directed at limiting street protests and free speech on campus.

America spoke in November, one month after the candidates collided in the presidential debate held Oct. 9 at Washington University in St. Louis. In the days that followed the historic 2016 election, faculty experts across campus offered their perspectives on the economy, the legislative responses, the cultural and global ripple effects.

Betsy DeVos is arguably the most controversial figure ever nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Education. Yet in covering her nomination, many journalists have conflated valid concerns about experience, temperament and political beliefs with questionable assumptions about her religious background, argues Abram Van Engen, associate professor of English.

Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, has a strong commitment to rule of law values and is the best possible choice among the potential nominees that Trump circulated before the election, says a Supreme Court scholar at Washington University in St. Louis.

Enrollment in Medicaid grew more rapidly in metropolitan areas than in rural areas in states that did not expand the program under the Affordable Care Act, according to new research from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.