Humanities & Society

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.

The Brown School’s Health Communication Research Laboratory (HCRL) at Washington University in St. Louis has received a five-year, $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute to study ways to help low-income smokers quit smoking through specialized quitlines and helping with basic needs.

Ross Brownson, the Bernard Becker Professor at the Brown School and director of the Prevention Research Center, has received a $2.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to find ways of reducing the burden of diabetes by increasing adoption of proven programs and policies among local health practitioners.

Greater efforts should be made to actively monitor physical activity as a risk factor in clinical practice, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

As Democrats gather in Philadelphia, and Hillary Clinton accepts her party’s nomination for the presidency, it is worth pausing to consider the history of previous female presidential candidates. “Women have been running for president since before they had the right to vote,” said Andrea Friedman, professor of history and of women, gender, and sexuality studies at Washington University in St. Louis. “This has been a very long time coming.”

Screening for suicide risk among publicly insured urban children who are experiencing psychological distress is vitally important, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.