Humanities & Society

Christina D. Romer, PhD, former chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, will deliver a keynote address to open a panel discussion on “The Continuing Unemployment Crisis: Causes, Cures, and Questions for Further Study” at 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall.

Students, faculty, staff and members of the St. Louis community are invited to the fourth annual Faces of Hope, a celebration of civic engagement and community service, at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 7, in Whitaker Hall Atrium and Auditorium. The event is sponsored by the Gephardt Institute for Public Service.

The meltdown of private pension plans, 401(k)s and Individual Retirement Accounts during the recession demonstrates that Social Security is more essential than ever, says Merton C. Bernstein, LLB, the Walter D. Coles Professor Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Bernstein discussed the crucial role of Social Security in a report for the university’s Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

The 21st annual Pow Wow at Washington University in St. Louis, a festival of American Indian cultures, will be held Saturday, April 9, in the Field House. This event, hosted by the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at the Brown School, is free and open to the public. Visitors and participants will be able to enjoy dancing, singing, drumming, arts, crafts and food. Intertribal and contest dancing take place at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Traditional arts and crafts booths and community information booths open at 10 a.m.

The insult-laden screaming matches that often mark today’s political and religious disagreements don’t have to dominate the national dialogue, suggest two former St. Louis clergymen. A panel discussion on the future of interfaith cooperation, featuring Rabbi Steve Gutow, JD, and the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, PhD, is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall on WUSTL’s Danforth Campus.

The New York Times will begin charging users for online content March 28. No American news outlet as big as the paper has put its content behind a paywall after offering it for free. Will it be successful? Two marketing professors at Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis debate the merits of a paywall.

Leaders in higher education and international service will come together on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis March 30-April 1 for the International Service and Higher Education Symposium. “International service is not new to higher education, but it is at the threshold of a new era,” says Amanda Moore McBride, PhD, director of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service and research director for the Center for Social Development at Washington University.

Rye Barcott, author of It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace, will present a lecture titled “Spark Change from Within” at 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, in Brown Hall Lounge. Barcott co-founded the non-governmental organization Carolina for Kibera while he was an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  

This year’s Thurtene Carnival is reaching out to more student groups and the community during pre-events as well as the joy-filled festival itself. Although the fair doesn’t officially kick off until Friday, April 15, organizers are holding several community and fundraising activities during Spirit Week March 27- April 2 to help raise money for this year’s charity, the Belle Center, which helps disabled children with mainstream integration.

The Chabad on Campus-Rohr Center for Jewish Life at Washington University in St. Louis will dedicate its new facility at 11:30 a.m., Sunday, March 27, in memory of benefactor Barry H. Levites.