Humanities & Society

The MasterCard Foundation announced a partnership with a consortium of four organizations to conduct a landmark, global research initiative that will test how to sustainably deliver savings services to low-income youth in the developing world.  The initiative — YouthSave — is based on emerging evidence that suggests linking youth to savings may improve their economic, educational and health-related futures.  The four organizations participating in the consortium are Save the Children, the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, the New America Foundation, and CGAP (the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor).

TIME magazine has named Michael Sherraden, PhD, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, to the 2010 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Sherraden, the founder and director of the Brown School’s Center for Social Development (CSD), is known for his pioneering work on asset building for low-income people.

Child Development Accounts are savings accounts that begin as early as birth and allow parents and children to accumulate savings for post-secondary education, homeownership or business initiatives. “There is evidence that when there are savings and assets in the household – particularly savings in a child’s name – that children have greater educational attainment, are more likely to do well in high school, attend college and graduate from college,” says Michael Sherraden, PhD, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at the Brown School. Sherraden recently was named to TIME Magazine’s TIME 100.

Fidel Desir is the winner of the 2010 Stalker Award. The prize is named in the honor of the late Harrison D. Stalker, PhD, who was professor of biology; a leading evolutionary biologist, geneticist and inspired teacher; and a true enthusiast of the fine arts.

Whether it’s for money, marbles or chalk, the brains of reward-driven people keep their game faces on, helping them win at every step of the way, even when there is no reward at stake, suggests a surprising Washington University in St. Louis brain scan study published online today by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Western cultural perceptions of the human body will be the focus as the East Asian Studies Program in Arts & Sciences holds a free seminar at 4 p.m. May 4 in Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall. The event is a prelude to a four-semester seminar program on Japanese views of the body that begins in fall 2010.

A lecture on “Violence and Social Orders: Where Are We Going” by economics Nobel Laureate Douglass C. North, PhD, the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts & Sciences, has been rescheduled for 12 noon May 3 in Room L006, Seigle Hall, Danforth Campus, Washington University. 

Frank K. Flinn, Ph.D., adjunct professor of religious studies in Arts & Sciences and author of The Encyclopedia of Catholicism (2007) comments on the damage the pedophilia scandal has caused the church and claims the Vatican’s own laws are responsible.

America’s satisfaction with government is hovering at all time lows according to recent polls by Gallup and the Pew Research Center, but don’t assume these sentiments spell doom for the Democratic Party in coming elections, says a congressional expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

The dark clouds of volcanic ash that have closed airports and stranded travelers for days on end may have a silver lining, suggests an expert on human creativity from Washington University in St. Louis. Like it or note, stranded travelers around the globe are suddenly finding themselves with a lot of unscheduled time on their hands, and idle time is a key ingredient to becoming more creative in your personal and professional lives.