Humanities & Society

Members of the WUSTL community are pitching in to help relief efforts in Haiti in the wake of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. 

The Gephardt Institute for Public Service invites students, faculty and staff to participate in “Faces of Hope” in April, a celebration of civic engagement and community service. Student, faculty, and department-led initiatives; student groups; community-based learning and teaching courses; and service trips all are welcome to participate. Applications are due Friday, Feb. 12. 

Creativity at the World Economic Forum? That may seem like a bit of stretch. But according to Keith Sawyer, PhD, associate professor of education and of psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, the two go hand-in-hand. Sawyer moderated two sessions at last month’s forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Black Anthology, the student-written, student-performed and student-produced cultural arts show celebrating black culture, will present its annual showcase at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 11 and 12, in Edison Theatre.

Don’t be fooled by a company’s recent attempt to market smokeless tobacco as “harmless,” says Douglas Luke, Ph.D., professor and director of the Center for Tobacco Policy Research at the Brown School. “Part of what we’re seeing here is the tobacco industry trying to position smokeless tobacco products so that they either do not come under the new Food and Drug Administration regulations or they come under weaker regulations,” Luke says.

Are you looking to make the government’s new dietary recommendations part of your life? Begin by writing down what you eat, says Connie Diekman, director of University Nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis. The U.S. departments of Agriculture and Health & Human Services this week released new food guidelines that call for more fruits and vegetables, less sodium and more whole grain.

The George Warren Brown School of Social Work’s Livable Lives Initiative has awarded eight grants to faculty across the university. The selected projects investigate policies and programs designed to help those with low or moderate incomes achieve lives that are more stable, secure, satisfying and successful.

Black Anthology, in its 21st year as a student-run performance arts show celebrating black culture, will be held at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 5 and 6, in Edison Theatre. The show is held every year in February as a celebration of Black History Month.

Given ongoing agitation by a chorus of elected officials, the stage may be set for a major overhaul, if not outright abolishment of the nation’s largest home mortgage financing operations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Radhakrishan Gopalan, who teaches finance at Olin Business School, tells Smart Money that the private market should be able meet home financing needs, in most cases.

While the story of Michelangelo’s artistic genius has been told many times, the story of his social ambitions has been told scarcely at all. Indeed, scholars have largely dismissed the artist’s claims to noble birth. Yet it was precisely that belief that propelled Michelangelo’s lifelong quest not only to improve his family’s financial position, but to improve the very social standing of artists. So argues art historian William Wallace in the new biography “Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man, and his Times.”