Humanities & Society

Glenn Stone, a professor of anthropology and environmental studies at Washington University, joins National Public Radio host Ira Flatow for a broadcast of NPR’s Science Friday live from St. Louis. The show will focus on the pros and cons of genetically modified crops.

The annual WUSTL Relay For Life will be held Saturday and Sunday, March 20 and 21, at Francis Field’s Bushyhead Track. The relay is a 12-hour family-friendly event that raises funds for the American Cancer Society. Last year, the event attracted more than 2,000 volunteers who helped to generate more than $150,000 for cancer research, advocacy, patient services and education.

The Tyson Living Learning Center at Washington University in St. Louis has been called one of the greenest buildings in the U.S. Green technologies behind the building are the focus of a National Public Radio Science Friday news video and an NPR radio discussion broadcast live from St. Louis March 12.

The annual African Film Festival will be held Friday through Sunday, March 26-28, on the Danforth Campus, offering “one of its very strongest programs this year of unique and yet universally-relevant films,” says Gaylyn Studlar, PhD, director of the Program in Film and Media Studies in Arts & Sciences and the David May Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities.

Reconciliation is a “fast-track” legislative process that bypasses potential Senate gridlock and permits the passage of budget-related legislation by majority vote. It’s a hot-button issue now as the Senate grapples with health-care legislation. “The passage this term of health-care legislation, and perhaps the future of health care reform more generally now may turn on rulings of the current parliamentarian,” says Cheryl Block, JD, professor of law. 

As President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress head for a final showdown over long-stalled health-care reform legislation, pundits are struggling to explain an array of arcane congressional rules and protocols that may determine whether health care reform passes or dies on the vine. Many of these pundits are getting it wrong, suggests WUSTL congressional expert Steven S. Smith, Ph.D.

Nearly 200 WUSTL students will volunteer their time throughout the continent during spring break, March 8-12. Dozens of groups of students will travel to places as close as Chicago and as far away as Guatemala City, Guatemala, for service projects ranging from building construction and maintenance to helping at an orphanage.

Humans have long been advised to “know thyself,” but new research suggests we may not know ourselves as well as we think we do. While individuals may be more accurate at assessing their own neurotic traits, such as anxiety, it seems friends, and even strangers, are often better barometers of traits such as intelligence, creativity and extroversion.

The gift of “seeing ourselves as others see us” comes in handy when judging how we’ve made a first impression. Yet many come away with little or no clue about how that first impression was perceived. A new study suggests confidence is a key indicator of how well we’ve assessed impressions left behind.

John W. Lowe, Ph.D., a noted Americanist specializing in Southern literature and studies, is the visiting Hurst Professor in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences the week of March 1. Lowe will give two public lectures: one on “The Haitian Revolution’s Effect on Southern Literature”; the other on William Faulkner.