Humanities & Society

Despite its divisiveness, health reform legislation did not play a major role in the midterm elections. “We are still a 50-50 country more or less on health reform,” says Timothy D. McBride, PhD, professor and associate dean for public health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “About half the country really dislikes the reform law, and those voters were likely to vote Republican in this election. But in all likelihood they would have done so anyway. Similarly, the other half that still favor the legislation would likely have voted for the Democrats anyway.” 

Shirley H. Perry, a Washington University in St. Louis alumna and author of the recently released After Many Days: My Life as a Spy and Other Grand Adventures, will tell about her days as a CIA operative during the Cold War at a reading and book signing at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 8, in Tisch Commons in the Danforth University Center at Washington University.

WUSTL community members looking to give back to the community and have a little fun in the process are encouraged to attend the 2010 St. Louis Area Dance Marathon beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, in the Field House of the Athletic Complex.

Washington University Students for International Collaboration on the Environment will host the first U.S.-China Undergraduate Conference on Climate Change and Sustainability Thursday through Tuesday, Nov. 4-9, on the Danforth Campus. The conference, which will address issues of energy, food production, climate change, environmental justice and more, is free and open to the public.

Students who care deeply about the community and want to give back can apply for grant money to make their ideas a reality. Four grants totaling $22,000 are available to students this year. Money for the development and implementation of innovative community projects during the summer is available in the form of social change grants through the Community Service Office.

Some of the world’s leading social scientists will be on campus Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 4-6, as Washington University in St. Louis hosts an academic conference honoring the legacy of Nobel Laureate Douglass C. North, PhD. North, who celebrates his 90th birthday Friday, Nov. 5, is the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts & Sciences and co-recipient of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Charles W. Burson, JD, senior professor of practice at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and former chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, says that the midterm elections reflect a dramatic turn from the wave of aspiration that defined our politics in 2008 to the wave of grievance that defines these midterm elections. “The Tea Party movement is the embodiment of that phenomenon. In Missouri, this wave has put the seats of Democratic Congressmen Ike Skelton and Russ Carnahan at risk, but the same wave may have also put at risk the seat of Republican Representative Jo Ann Emerson.”

The Department of Education in Arts & Sciences will host a one-day conference on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education on Friday, Nov. 5 in Seigle Hall, Room 148. Titled “Beyond Stock Stories and Folktales: African Americans and the Pipeline to the Professoriate: An Evidence-Based Examination of STEM Fields,” the conference will focus on diversity in science education.

Halloween candy is a treat for many children, but for those forced to work on cocoa farms in west Africa it’s a mean and tortuous trick. Two WUSTL professors call attention to the hidden horrors of cocoa production — the base ingredient in chocolate — in an op-ed piece published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Participants in the Oct. 21 Second Annual Fall Arbor tour — led by Kent Theiling (right), grounds manager/horticulturist for the Danforth Campus — listen as Theiling points out distinguishing features of the different types of trees that dot the Danforth Campus. Arbor tours, which are led by Theiling, are held twice a year, in the spring and fall.