Humanities & Society

Charlottesville, Va. recently became the first town in the U.S. to pass an anti-drone resolution, calling for a restriction on the use of the unmanned surveillance vehicles. “For drones, I think the problem is that they do have some legitimate law enforcement purposes, but they raise massive problems of invasion of privacy and government surveillance that we need to think through before we deploy drones in vast numbers in our skies,” says Neil Richards, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Lawyers recently have gained attention by seeking restitution from individuals convicted of viewing or downloading exploitative photos of children. “This ‘pay-per-view’ system further commodifies victims,” says Cortney Lollar, JD, clinical faculty at Washington University in St. Louis. She says that two key changes are in order: move from the current restitution system to the creation of a child pornography crime victims’ compensation fund, and devote more resources to preventing child sexual abuse.

A special supplemental issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine titled, “Research Collaboration with 2-1-1 to Eliminate Health Disparities” was recently published, marking the first time a journal has focused entirely on scientific research conducted within 2-1-1 systems. And Washington University in St. Louis researchers, led by Matthew W. Kreuter, PhD, director of the Health Communication Research Laboratory, played a key role in the publication.

This week, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton travels to Ghana to meet with officials from the University of Ghana and sign official papers making the university the 28th partner — and the first in Africa — in the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.

Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School, in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel, and Onward Israel, is launching an Israel Summer Business Academy, aimed at providing students an opportunity to learn firsthand about business in Israel, one of the most vibrant hubs of entrepreneurship in the world.

If that headline doesn’t grab your attention, new research from Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School on the “Psychological and Sexual Costs of Income Comparison in Marriage”should. The study, by Lamar Pierce, PhD, professor of strategy at Olin, shows that men married to women with higher incomes are more likely to use erectile dysfunction medication than their male breadwinner counterparts.

The School of Medicine’s 9th Annual Art Show opened Jan. 22 and will run through Feb. 17 in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center. The show features artwork by more than 60 artists within the School of Medicine. Shown is “Tree of Life,” a sculpture carved from black walnut by Gerald W. Dorn II, MD, the Philip and Sima K. Needleman Professor. Admiring it are first-year medical students Linda Ma (left) and Shruti Mishra.​

A “Global Tea” event was held Jan. 31 in Danforth University Center as an opportunity for undergraduate students to learn about the new Global Certificate offered by the university. Event organizers obtained donations of tea from international students returning to St. Louis after winter break.

WUSTL students living in on-campus housing on the South 40, the north side of the Danforth Campus and in fraternities are shutting off lights, sharing refrigerators and setting their laptops on power save mode to try to win the annual Green Cup. The Green Cup recognizes the team in each area of campus that garners the most points during the four-week competition, Feb 1-28.

Timothy McBride, PhD, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert on healthcare policy and health economics, has been named chairman of the MO HealthNET Oversight Committee for the state of Missouri.