Humanities & Society

Social commentator, actress and comedian Nancy Giles will explore why “Mentoring Matters” for the Assembly Series at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 15 in Graham Chapel. The talk is free and open to the public.

The 20th annual Pow Wow, a festival of American Indian cultures, opens at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 10, in the Field House. Visitors and participants will be able to enjoy dancing, singing, drumming, arts, crafts and food. The daylong event, hosted by the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at the Brown School, is free and open to the public.

Parents, schools and communities need to be involved in combating the epidemic of childhood obesity, Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD, says.

The Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will host a daylong conference titled “State and Local Government Finance Amid Economic Turbulence” beginning at 8 a.m. Friday, April 9, in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium. The conference is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Although best known as a pioneering feminist, Gloria Steinem always has been a civil rights advocate. Her work now extends to the burgeoning global problem of human trafficking. Steinem will be on campus at noon Monday, April 12, in Graham Chapel speaking on “Sex Trafficking and the New Abolitionists” for the Assembly Series.

Leading experts will convene for a discussion panel on “Labor and Migration Effects of Human Trafficking” at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 7, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall. The panel, hosted by the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Work and Social Capital, is co-sponsored by the Law & Culture Initiative and is free and open to the public.

A team of psychologists at Washington University that include graduate student Jonathan Jackson have found an intriguing possibility that personality and brain aging during the golden years may be linked.

Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir will give a free concert covering American history through music at 8:15 p.m. Saturday, April 10, at the 560 Music Center.

Outgoing, gregarious people who fill their lives with deep, meaningful conversations may have found at least one key to a happier life, suggests research from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Arizona.

Hip hop artist and actor Common will give the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Association of Black Students, at 7 p.m. Monday, March 29, in Graham Chapel. This event was originally scheduled to take place April 6.