Humanities & Society

Nirupama Rao, Indian Ambassador to the United States, will speak about U.S. and India relations during a visit to the university Saturday, Oct. 19. Rao will present the McDonnell International Scholars Academy 2013 S.T. Lee Distinguished Lecture at 5:30 p.m. in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium. Rao’s lecture will serve as the capstone to the Washington University in St. Louis-Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Corporate Conclave.​

At a ceremony held at Washington University on May 28, Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD, an internationally renowned researcher in obesity and diabetes prevention, received the dual honor of being installed as the first Joyce Wood Professor, which also happens to be the university’s first endowed professorship in public health.

WUSTL students kicked off Car-Free Month Oct. 4 with a bike-in movie at Forest Park. Today is the last day to sign up for the Car-Free Challenge. Other events this month include free bike tune-ups, bike rides and the MetroLink Prom. 

Afghan-American journalist and Opium Nation author Fariba Nawa will participate in two Washington University in St. Louis programs exploring the current and future state of Afghanistan: She will give an Assembly Series talk, “Afghanistan, Heroin and Women,” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, in Umrath Lounge; and she will lead a panel discussion, “Aftershocks of the Afghanistan War: What’s Next for Those Who Left and for Those Left Behind,” at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, in Mallinckrodt Center’s Multipurpose Room. Both are free and open to the public. Nawa was born in Afghanistan but later moved to California. She returned after the U.S.-led fight began against the Taliban and al-Qaida in that country, and in 2011 wrote a book about the addictions, violence and other tragedies borne of Afghanistan’s opiate industry.

The city of Providence, R.I., is taking the fight against Big Tobacco to a new level with innovative tobacco control policies in the retail environment. A new study, led in part by Washington University in St. Louis’ Center for Public Health Systems Science (CPHSS) at the Brown School, details Providence’s efforts and provides a road map for other municipalities to follow.

The obesity epidemic and how science may be able to impact it is the focus of the upcoming annual conference of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, deputy director of the Institute for Public Health and a disease prevention expert at Siteman Cancer Center, will deliver the keynote address.

Christine Dolan, coordinator for LGBT Student Involvement and Leadership, has helped organize events in honor of LGBT History Month. Tonight’s Out in the Workplace event will help such students navigate the job market.

KIPP students are working hard to get into college. And yet, many have never visited a campus before. Organized by sorority and fraternity members, Greek Serve 2013: The KIPP College Experience gave KIPP seventh-graders a look at life on campus.

Close to 3 billion people in the developing world rely on biomass combustion — burning fires in rudimentary stoves — for cooking and heating needs. As a result, 4 million people die each year, and the large amount of black soot created has a staggering negative impact on the poor. This fall, Gautam N. Yadama, PhD, professor and director of international programs at the Brown School and photographer Mark Katzman are taking that issue to a broader audience with the publication of Fires, Fuel and the Fate of 3 Billion: The State of the Energy Impoverished (Oxford University Press 2013), a 152-page collection of photos and essays that tell an eye-opening, insightful story about energy access in the rural villages of India, where the hunt for safe, affordable energy is often a matter of life or death.

The controversy and legal battles surrounding the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act have led to a new – and worrisome – legal concept: the idea of a “corporate conscience,” warns Elizabeth Sepper, who teaches at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.