Humanities & Society

Laurie Maffly-Kipp, PhD, a professor in the humanities in Arts & Sciences and in the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, received the 2014 James W.C. Pennington Award for her research on African-American religion and history.

Walking, biking or taking public transportation for work and errands can increase physical activity and offers other health benefits — but adults older than 60 are much less likely to regularly use public transit, finds a new study of St. Louisans from the Brown School.

This spring and summer, Washington University in St. Louis is adding 379 kilowatts of solar energy throughout all campuses, a move that will increase its solar output by more than 1,150 percent over previous levels. (Pictured) Tyson Research Center now has a 50-kW ground-mounted array.

Washington University in St. Louis’ Teaching Center brought together faculty from Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering & Applied Science for the inaugural Summer STEM Faculty Institute on Teaching (STEM FIT), held June 17-19 in Seigle Hall. Faculty developed strategies for incorporating evidence-based teaching practices to improve student learning and encourage undergraduates to persist in STEM majors.

While tight budgets are constraining regulatory spending at many federal agencies, those that garner funding from industry fees are using these revenue streams to fund substantial increases in regulatory programs and staffing, according to an annual report that examines the U.S. budget. The report was released by the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis and the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center.

A new study, led by Jenine K. Harris, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School, examined the use of the hashtag #childhoodobesity in tweets to track Twitter conversations about the issue of overweight kids.

​​Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case is the corporate equivalent of the road to Damascus, says Elizabeth Sepper, JD, associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Many more corporations will find religion to opt out of regulation that affects their bottom line,” Sepper says. “Before Hobby Lobby, businesses lost claims to fire pregnant women, refuse to promote non-Christians, discriminate against gays, and pay below the minimum wage. “After Hobby Lobby, they seem likely to succeed.”​

Figuring out how to survive on a lean-season diet of hard-to-reach ants, slugs and other bugs may have spurred the development of bigger brains and higher-level cognitive functions in the ancestors of humans and other primates, suggests research from Washington University in St. Louis.

It has generally been assumed that people with episodic amnesia experience time much differently than those with more typical memory function. However, recent research by Washington University philosopher Carl F. Craver, PhD, disputes this type of claim. “There are sets of claims that sound empirical, like ‘These people are stuck in time.’ But if you ask, ‘Have you actually tested what they know about time?’ the answer is no.”

Award-winning poet Mary Jo Bang is one of 25 recipients of a 2014-15 Berlin Prize Fellowship. Awarded by the American Academy in Berlin, the prize includes a residential fellowship at the academy’s Hans Arnhold Center in Berlin-Wannsee. Bang will be part of the spring 2015 class and she will work on a book of poems.