Humanities & Society

The Great Recession, characterized by devastating mortgage defaults, has challenged the conventional wisdom that home ownership is a good investment, particularly for those with low and moderate incomes. But the conventional wisdom on the benefits of owning vs. renting still holds when done right, according to a newly published study led by the Brown School’s Center for Social Development and Michal Grinstein-Weiss, PhD. Homeowners with low and moderate incomes who participated in this study conducted between 2005-08 achieved higher net worth than their counterparts who rent. This research provides new and important evidence for the current policy debate on low-income homeownership programs,” Grinstein-Weiss says.

Arts & Sciences senior Nisha K. Chatterjee is this year’s winner of the Rabbi Ferdinand M. Isserman Prize. The annual award recognizes a student who has made a significant contribution in service and leadership to ecumenical or interfaith activities on the Washington University in St. Louis campus.

Memory problems related to day-to-day activities — one of the largest complaints of people with Alzheimer’s diease — may be due to older adults’ inability to segment their daily lives into discrete experiences, suggests new psychology research from Washington University in St. Louis. How we perceive events in our current lives influences how we remember them in the future, the study finds.

Over spring break, Room 37 in the Brown School’s Goldfarb Hall was transformed. For the last eight weeks of the semester, Brown School students in 15 courses took part in an experiment in pedagogy that brings teaching — and learning — into a new era. This isn’t your parents’ lecture hall. Say hello to the wired world of interactive instruction — or active learning.

WUSTL faculty, staff and students rode from the Danforth Campus to Forest Park for the first “bike-in” movie April 25, as part of the 2013 Earth Week celebration.

In spite of a sluggish job market for today’s graduates, there are a few specific things both parents and graduates can do to move forward during this time of waiting.

Young adults with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more likely to never see friends, never get called by friends, never be invited to activities and be socially isolated. That’s the finding of new research released online in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders that studies the social outcomes of young adults with an ASD. The study is part of a pioneering program of research on adolescents and adults with autism led by Paul T. Shattuck, PhD, associate professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Lead author is Gael I. Orsmond, PhD, associate professor at Boston University and an expert on the social development of adults with an ASD.

Religion & Politics, the online journal of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, has been recognized as an official honoree at the 17th Annual Webby Awards in the category of Best Religion & Spirituality Website.

The Brown School held its second annual Research Without Walls student research symposium April 25 in the hallways of Brown and Goldfarb Halls on the Danforth Campus. The symposium gives students practice in presenting their research to peers, professors and the public in a relaxed, informal setting.

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, some people are calling for an increase in surveillance cameras throughout U.S. cities. “This would be a mistake,” says Neil Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “It would be dangerous to our civil liberties, and it would be bad policy.” Richards gives his personal reaction to the Boston bombings and offers three reasons why increasing the number of surveillance cameras would be an unnecessary response to recent events in a CNN opinion piece, “Surveillance State No Answer to Terror.”