Humanities & Society

Students in WUSTL’s Washington DC Semester Program met on Sept. 20 with Ambassador George Moose, former assistant secretary of state for African affairs and career member of the U.S. Foreign Service.

Health and human services organizations and programs are in constant growth and movement, and the need for effective evaluation of the impact of those initiatives in the community is greater than ever. The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, together with WUSTL’s Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Rome Group, will present a two-day summit, “Evaluation for Social Impact” Oct. 16 and 17 at the studios of the Nine Network in midtown St. Louis.​

The Weidenbaum Center will host a panel discussion, “The Election and the Economy,” at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall.

More than 2 million consumers got to gloat Friday about their shrewdness in procuring an iPhone 5, with its larger screen and 200 additional features through its new operating system. But once the novelty wears off, will they still enjoy their purchase? It depends on why they bought it, says new research from a marketing professor at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

A groundbreaking study aims to find out whether the opportunity to save will entice youth in developing countries to bank their money. Representatives from the Center for Social Development at the Brown School traveled halfway around the world to Nepal to meet with colleagues from the YouthSave Consortium, and had the unique opportunity to talk with Nepalese youth and learn more about their savings experience.

Workers pour sweat, blood and even dollars into the firms that employ them, especially in a labor market characterized by employment and retirement insecurity, says Marion Crain, JD, expert on labor and employment law and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Work can shape one’s life in ways that run to the core of identity,” she says. “Work law, however, ignores these realities of interdependence and mutual investment, committing itself to a model of employment as an arm’s length, impersonal cash-for-labor transaction.” Crain suggests looking at other legal models such as marriage law to more accurately respond to the realities of the employment relationship, particularly at termination. 

The Public Interest Law and Policy Speakers Series continues Thursday, Sept. 20, with Goodwin Liu, associate justice of the Supreme Court of California, on “Federal Law in State Court: Handling Conflicts over Arbitration, Immigration, and Constitutional Rights” at noon in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom (Anheuser-Busch Hall, Room 310). The 2012-13 series features judges, lawyers, authors and academics with expertise in public interest law and policy. For a full list of the 2012-13 speakers visit http://law.wustl.edu/pilss/.

Beginning Thursday, Sept. 20, and running through the week of the national election, the Gephardt Institute for Public Service is offering “Issues and Ideas: Election 2012,” a series of evening panel discussions on a wide range of political issues and topics.

Britain’s royal family has obtained an injunction against the French magazine Closer to prevent it from publishing topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton. “The case would likely come out differently if it were brought in the United States,” says Neil Richards, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Richards, an internationally recognized expert in privacy and free speech law who hails from England, explains that English and European courts have been very aggressive in stopping media from publishing pictures delving into the sex lives of celebrities.

Developing new and innovative approaches for the teaching of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) is the primary goal of an interdisciplinary conference to be held Sept. 27-28 at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center at Washington University in St. Louis.