Humanities & Society

Celebration Weekend starts today and runs through Saturday, April 12. About 600 students and their families will tour campus, meet current students and faculty, learn more about research and academic opportunities and enjoy performances from a variety of multicultural groups.

On Friday, April 11, Washington University in St. Louis will break ground on the new Gary M. Sumers Recreation Center. The center is part of a $54 million renovation and expansion of the university Athletic Complex — the first significant update since 1985.

In an American Academy of Arts & Sciences report called “The Heart of the Matter,” the academy argues that the humanities and social sciences are necessary for a vibrant, competitive and secure nation. This is not the usual argument for the humanities, and that’s a good thing, according to WUSTL Provost Holden Thorp, PhD. He will give the annual Phi Beta Kappa/Sigma Xi lecture on April 17, titled “From Salesman to Hamletmachine: The Need for the Humanities.”

Employees and students are encouraged to try different forms of alternative transportation to campus during Car-free Month. Events include free bike tune-ups, a self-guided Metro scavenger hunt to the South Grand neighborhood and the  inaugural Bikes in Bowles Block Party

Scallion pancakes, Strange donuts and deep-fried anything are among many delicacies to be dished out on campus this weekend during Thurtene, the nation’s oldest and largest student-run carnival. Rides, games and student performances will add to the fun.

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.

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.