Humanities & Society

A symposium exploring social and cultural issues at the intersection of professional sports, race, gender and sexual identity will attract leading scholars and book authors to Washington University in St. Louis on April 11.

The Brown School bestowed one Distinguished Faculty Award and five Distinguished Alumni Awards during its annual alumni awards celebration dinner March 26 at the Palladium Saint Louis. Among the five, two alumni were selected as outstanding Graduates of the Last Decade.

The goal of the campus PB&Joy food drive is to help feed 135,000 hungry children. Campus Kitchen, which boasts 275 WUSTL student volunteers and serves 2,250 meals annually, is one of many organizations that depends on Operation Food Search.

Bob Harris wanted to help people living in poverty who had an entrepreneurial streak, so he donated $20,000 of his money to individuals he found on the micro loan financing website, Kiva.org. Then he set out to meet them. Then he wrote a book about them. Harris will talk about his philanthropy and his travels for the Skandalaris Cenetr for Entrepreneurial Studies’ YouthBridge lecture on April 10.

Jonathan Bate, PhD, one of the world’s leading scholars of Shakespeare, will discuss “Shakespeare at 450 Years” at 2:30 p.m. Monday, April 7, in Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall, at Washington University in St. Louis. Bate, who is well known as a biographer, critic, broadcaster and scholar, is provost of Worcester College and professor of English literature at the University of Oxford.

Ranked among the nation’s top Relay for Life fundraisers, WUSTL’s event also is one of the most fun. Highlights include a tug-of-war, performances from campus acts and a midnight “silent rave.”

Charred grains of barley, millet and wheat deposited nearly 5,000 years ago at campsites in the high plains of Kazakhstan show that nomadic sheepherders played a surprisingly important role in the early spread of domesticated crops throughout a mountainous east-west corridor along the historic Silk Road, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Don’t miss this beautiful classical concert in the Cathedral Basilica, featuring St. Louis’ world-renowned orchestra and choir. With an 8-second sound delay in the hall, the music of Bruckner, Vaughan Williams and Messiaen literally will be bouncing off the walls, immersing you in sound.

WUSTL students are riding a teeter-totter this week to raise money for the Campus Y Strong Community Campaign.

Is the American Dream slipping away? Maybe, says Mark R. Rank, PhD, one of the country’s foremost experts on inequality and social justice. “More than at any time in our past,” Rank says, “there are serious questions regarding the American Dream and its applicability to everyday people.” Rank’s new book, “Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes” (Oxford University Press 2014) is out.