Humanities & Society

With the United States and affiliated NATO troops preparing to pull out of war-torn Afghanistan by the end of 2014, attention will continue to focus on the 12-year war and the aftermath on its citizens. But a new study on mental health in Afghanistan, led by Jean-Francois Trani, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, looks beyond the effects of war and identifies the root causes of mental distress and anxiety among its citizens: poverty and vulnerability.

President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton announced the program and featured participants for the sixth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) to be held at Washington University in St. Louis April 5-7. In addition to President Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, Stephen Colbert, Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and WUSTL’s Michael Sherraden are among the featured speakers.

A pair of extensive, unique collections arrived at Washington University Libraries in recent weeks, their wide-ranging contents anticipated to be of much interest to scholars and others wishing to explore the remarkable literary career of either David Wagoner or Alexander Trocchi. ​

The Supreme Court appears very likely to strike down the most important provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, says Gregory P. Magarian, JD, constitution law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “This was an unusually revealing oral argument, because two justices asked questions that reflected both fundamental misunderstanding of the law and disturbing indifference to the constitutional grounding of the Voting Rights Act,” he says.

Peter G. Sortino, WUSTL assistant vice chancellor, is being inducted into the Missouri Recreation and Parks Hall of Fame. This year he is coordinating the effort to pass Proposition P to fund improvements to area parks and the Arch grounds.

The Academy of American Poets has selected Mary Jo Bang’s translation of Dante’s Inferno as one of the Notable Books of 2012. Bang is a professor of English in Arts & Sciences. Her Inferno: A New Translation was one of only 12 books that made the notable list for 2012. The American Library Association also recently selected Bang’s Inferno as one of only two books of poetry to make its Notable Books for Adults 2013 list.

The 23rd annual Pow Wow, a festival of American Indian cultures, will be held Saturday, March 16, in the Field House on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis. This event, hosted by the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at the Brown School, is free and open to the public. This year’s theme is “Honoring Our Cultures While Strengthening Our Communities.”

During the installation ceremony of Vincent Sherry, PhD, as the first Howard Nemerov Professor in the Humanities in Arts & Sciences, Sherry delivered an address titled “‘By Degrees’: Howard Nemerov, Poetry, and the English Department.” During his talk, Sherry, chair and professor of English in Arts & Sciences, acknowledged the literary great for whom the professorship is named. To read Sherry’s Jan. 24 talk, visit here. 

Vincent Sherry, PhD, chair and professor of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, was installed as the first Howard Nemerov Professor in the Humanities in Arts & Sciences during a Jan. 24 ceremony in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall. Sherry delivered a talk in which he recognized the literary great for whom the professorship is named.

A survey of tanning salon operators in Missouri shows that 65 percent would allow children as young as 10 to 12 years old to use tanning beds. That’s despite evidence that any tanning bed use increases the risk of all skin cancers, including melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, later in life.