Humanities & Society

Andy Uecker (left), of the International Institute of Saint Louis, speaks with Adam Steffen, a graduate student in computer science in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, during the Public Service Fair Sept. 21 at the Danforth University Center. The fair, sponsored by the Gephardt Institute for Public Service, featured more than 40 nonprofit organizations offering a variety of community service and internship opportunities.

Tara Nummedal, PhD, associate professor of history at Brown University, will present “The Lion’s Blood: Anna Zieglerin and the Alchemical Redemption of the World” for the 2010-11 Witherspoon Memorial Lecture in Religion and Science at 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4, in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge.

The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., and Washington University in St. Louis announced recipients of grants from the joint Academic Venture Fund that support collaborations between scholars at WUSTL and Brookings working on projects that impact research, education and policy.

A 10-year study on Child Development Accounts (CDAs) has confirmed their viability as a tool for long-term asset building. Beginning as early as birth, CDAs are investment accounts that allow parents and children to accumulate savings for post-secondary education, homeownership or business initiatives. 

Dear Mr. President: With your economic team in transition, Murray Weidenbaum thought you could use some advice. Weidenbaum is an economist who has wrestled with federal budgets for six decades during a long career in public service and as an advisor to two presidents. Weidenbaum has prepared a list of budget cuts that calls for a new approach to fiscal restraint.

An investigation by an international consortium of scientists, including an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, has discovered the origin of the world’s deadliest form of human malaria, Plasmodium falciparum.

Mr. Smith went to Washington, again. Instead of staging a filibuster, Steven S. Smith, PhD, political science professor and parliamentary procedure expert  testified Sept. 22 before the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration on proposed rule changes governing debate and cloture.

p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:’Times New Roman’;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} Missouri has one of the highest statewide smoking averages in the country, more than 23 percent. And racial and ethnic minorities, people with lower incomes and education levels, Medicaid recipients and the LGBT community smoke or experience secondhand smoke at a rate significantly higher than the state average. These findings are highlighted in a recent report by the Center for Tobacco Policy Research (CTPR) at Washington University in St. Louis. The report, “Who is Most Affected? Tobacco-Related Disparities in Missouri,” identifies statewide differences related to who is smoking, who is exposed to secondhand smoke and who is quitting. 

Kevin Washburn, JD, professor and dean of the school of law at the University of New Mexico, will deliver a talk on “Improving Criminal Justice for American Indians,” at noon Thursday, Sept. 23, for the Assembly Series. The program, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall.

Current census figures show that one in seven Americans is living below the poverty level, a rate that nears the record poverty levels of 1960. “The latest rise in the poverty rate illustrates how many more Americans are at risk of poverty and economic insecurity in this country,” says Mark R. Rank, PhD, poverty expert and the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.