Humanities & Society

The Brown School community celebrated its expansion Sept. 24 with a ceremonial groundbreaking for an innovative new building of approximately 105,000-square feet set to open in the summer of 2015. When completed, the new facility will double the Brown School’s footprint on the Danforth Campus and bring the school, as Lawlor said in his remarks, into a “new era.”

Just a few days after the Affordable Care Act’s mandatory insurance component becomes law, the principal architect of the Massachusetts health care system and chief advisor to President Obama’s plan will be on campus to explain how it works and how it will benefit society. MIT economist and renowned health care expert Jonathan Gruber will deliver an Assembly Series lecture on “Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works” at 6 p.m. Friday, October 4 in Brown Hall Room 100 on the Washington University Danforth Campus.

Devoted to strengthening campus experience for all students, the Mosaic Project is developing a center for diversity and inclusion. The first of two town hall meetings takes place at 8 p.m. tonight, Sept. 25 in Wilson Hall.

Each year in the St. Louis region, thousands of African American students drop out of high school. According to a newly released policy brief — “How does health influence school dropout?” — health and education are closely related, and there are patterns related to health that increase the risk of high school dropout. The brief is the second of five in a yearlong, multidisciplinary study called “For the Sake of All: A Report on the Health and Well-Being of African Americans in St. Louis.” Its author is William F. Tate, PhD, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and chair of the Department of Education in Arts & Sciences.

The public discussion of global warming can feel very stuck at times. An innovative course at Washington University in St. Louis offers a way forward by making available the efforts of historians to integrate natural history and human history over the past 40 years. Taught by Venus Bivar, PhD, assistant professor of history in Arts & Sciences, it is an introduction to a discipline called environmental history, with a special focus on climate change.

Low-income youth in developing countries will save their money in a formal account when given the right opportunity. That’s a key point in a groundbreaking study called YouthSave, shared by Lissa Johnson, director of administration for the Center for Social Development (CSD), at the YouthSave Learning and Exchange Event in Washington, D.C., this month. CSD is a research center in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Graduate student Nick Miller (right) recently donated his stem cells an anonymous leukemia patient. He hopes she is doing well though, in a way, it doesn’t matter. “It’s worth trying regardless,” he says. He encourages students, faculty and staff to register to be a donor during the campus bone marrow drive Sept. 26.

​Washington University in St. Louis is launching a new pre-college program designed to help talented but underserved St. Louis high school students prepare for and complete a college education at a selective four-year college or university​. Pictured is Leah Merrifield, who will head the program.

Some 30 Washington University in St. Louis graduates joined Teach for America this year. They are serving high-need students in urban and rural classrooms across America. Teach for America reports that WUSTL consistently has ranked high among mid-sized colleges and universities that contribute students. This year, WUSTL is No. 12.

Samer S. Shehata, PhD, a leading Arab-American expert on Middle East politics, will deliver the keynote address at a public symposium titled “The Crisis in Egypt” at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 23, at Washington University in St. Louis. The symposium, which will be held in Umrath Lounge, will also feature a roundtable discussion and presentations on the latest developments in Egypt.