Humanities & Society

It is the ultimate symbol of public trust. Accompanying the president, at virtually all times, is a military aid with a large black satchel known as the “nuclear football.” But for all its prominence in the popular imagination, the football does not contain some sort of “nuclear button” that might allow a president to single-handedly initiate nuclear launch, says Krister Knapp, senior lecturer in history in Arts & Sciences.

World-renowned choreographer Bill T. Jones will receive Washington University’s 2016-17 International Humanities Prize Sept. 29. In this Q&A, Joanna Dee Das, assistant professor of dance, talks with Jones about his career, his choreographic process and his latest works.

In 1630, John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, proclaimed to fellow Puritan settlers that “we shall be as a city upon a hill.” In this video, Abram Van Engen examines the surprising history of Winthrop’s striking image and its subsequent adoption by presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.

A new study from Washington University in St. Louis suggests eight interventions that will help create healthier and more sustainable cities of the future, built to reduce the negative impacts of pollution, climate change, noise and crime.

Students who come out of college with debt, especially larger amounts of debt, are more likely to face hardship and financial difficulty during their lives, finds a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

As public rhetoric inflames and divides, the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics cultivates rigorous scholarship to build bridges and broaden understanding of America’s most contentious issues.

The School of Law’s 2016-17 Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers series at Washington University in St. Louis features an outstanding lineup of judges, lawyers, authors, and academics with expertise in public interest law and policy. The series begins at noon Monday, Sept. 12, with a lecture by Brenda Hollis, chief prosecutor at the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone.

The cost of incarceration in the United States exceeds $1 trillion, or six percent of gross domestic product. That dwarfs the amount spent on corrections alone, finds a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

A dramatic decline in the density of U.S. labor unions since the 1970s has resulted in lower wages for both union and nonunion workers, suggests a new study led by Jake Rosenfeld, associate professor of sociology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Recent scandals involving high-priced generic drugs should prompt us to consider price controls for pharmaceutical companies, says an expert on the health care industry at the School of Law at Washington University.