Humanities & Society

The new federal health-care law gives millions of Americans access to medical insurance. However, choosing the right coverage — a daunting task for most people — could be even more difficult for those who have never had health insurance, according to a new study at the School of Medicine.​​

A unique, long-term partnership between Washington University and the Hazelwood School District is showing eye-popping, unprecedented success in elementary and middle school science test scores — and in the process providing a roadmap for other districts to follow. The district saw scores on the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests increase 22.4 percentage points for fifth graders, and 12 percentage points for 8th graders over a five-year period beginning in 2008, the year it began a collaboration with WUSTL’s Institute for School Partnership.

Some 10 boxes, weighing over 100 pounds and carrying everything from breakfast bars, coffee, air fresheners, hand sanitizers, trail mix and home-baked goods, are on their way to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, thanks to Washington University’s Military Care Package group. With the November mailing, the group reached another milestone. Since 2004, WUSTL staff, students, faculty and administrators have donated, packaged and shipped more than eight tons of supplies to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A new academic survey conducted by Washington University in St. Louis’ Center for Social Development and national veterans nonprofit group The Mission Continues points to community volunteerism as an effective tool for addressing veterans’ reintegration challenges.

The 21st century is bringing challenges to urban areas like never before, as if A Tale of Two Cities is being played out over and over again, in your neighborhood and in cities all over the world. The problems are both local and global, and so are the solutions. It’s this context that has led three Washington University in St. Louis faculty to compile an impressive array of international scholarship in a two-volume book titled Urban Ills: Twenty-first-Century Complexities of Urban Living in Global Contexts.

Students took part in a themed trivia night inspired by the popular mustache-sporting character played by Nick Offerman on the TV show Parks and Recreation. Offerman will perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Edison Theatre. Other “Nick Week” activities today include an Offerman cookie contest at Cafe Bergson and a happy hour at 5:30 p.m. at the Gargoyle.

Two decades of research by Rumi Kato Price, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine, shows reason for optimism about the future of returning soldiers. “The notion that our soldiers deployed to conflict regions come back ‘broken’ is a one-sided story in the media,” says Price, whose research has explored trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and suicide among American military service members and veterans.

A groundbreaking multidisciplinary study on African-American health in St. Louis, ‘For the Sake of All,’ releases its fourth brief. This one examines the long-term effects of how segregation affects access to health-promoting resources and health outcomes such as chronic disease and death.

Arts & Sciences students Annie Werner (left), a sophomore, and Olivia Lugar, a junior, take “selfies” Oct. 31 in front of the McDonnell Center for Space Science’s Trick or Tweet display in Rudolph Hall. Arts & Sciences undergraduates were encouraged to participate in a community-building and social media campaign on Halloween by visiting departments throughout campus and taking their pictures next to Halloween-themed stations. One lucky student won an iPad Mini.

The Washington University Assembly Series and the School of Law Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series will close their fall 2013 program schedules on Thursday, Nov. 14, with an address by Catharine MacKinnon, one of the principal architects of landmark sex equality laws in the United States, and more currently known as an internationally successful litigator against sex crimes and human trafficking. MacKinnon will speak on “Trafficking, Prostitution and Inequality” at noon in the Anheuser-Busch Hall Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom.