Humanities & Society

This fall, Washington University will present “Ethnic Profiling: A Challenge to Democracy,” a semester-long series exploring the history, impact and ethical issues surrounding ethnic profiling through lectures, readings, performances, panel discussions and other events.

Students who learn history by watching historically based blockbuster movies may be doomed to repeat the historical mistakes portrayed within them, suggests a new study from Washington University in St. Louis. Findings suggest showing popular history movies in a classroom setting can be a double-edged sword when it comes to helping students learn and retain factual information in associated textbooks.

Parkinson’s disease is well-known for impairing movement and causing tremors, but many patients also develop other serious problems, including sleep disturbances and significant losses in cognitive function known as dementia. Now researchers at the School of Medicine have modeled Parkinson’s-associated dementia for the first time.

CoburnWhether your child is going away to college this fall across town or across the country, there are more ways to keep in touch than ever before. With today’s ubiquitous cell phones and access to Twitter, Facebook and texting, it may seem as though your child has never left the house. For students, there is the ever-present possibility of an available parent at the end of a cordless tether, which has the potential to hinder the letting go process, claims an expert on the college transition at Washington University in St. Louis.

America has the potential to solve its energy crisis over the next decade, but doing so requires immediate investment in the development and deployment of clean energy technologies, says Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis and vice chair of a new National Resource Council report on America’s energy challenges.

Bernstein”Private employment provides less health insurance than believed,” says Merton C. Bernstein, a founding board member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the Coles Professor of Law Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis. Bernstein is available to discuss health insurance in the U.S.

Photo by Janet GumpertRemembering to take daily medications can be a challenge, but new research offers tips for strengthening those memories.Doing something unusual, like knocking on wood or patting yourself on the head, while taking a daily dose of medicine may be an effective strategy to help seniors remember whether they’ve already taken their daily medications, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Traditional rice cultivation methods practiced in the isolated hillside farms of Thailand are helping preserve the genetic diversity of rice, one of the world’s most important food crops, according to a new study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

“With President Obama now approaching six months in office, some have suggested that we have gone beyond race as a major dividing line in society. Yet nothing could be further from the truth,” says Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. “One of the fundamental fault lines in American society continues to be the ongoing racial disparities in economic well-being.” Using 30 years of data, Rank examined three key factors in attaining economic well-being: owning a home and building equity; attaining affluence and avoiding poverty; and possessing enough assets to survive economic turmoil, or a “rainy day fund.” “The results indicate that within each area, the economic racial divide across the American life course is immense,” Rank says.

Freshwater fish are an important part of the diet of many peoples around the world, but it has been unclear when fish became an essential part of the year-round diet for early humans. A new study by an international team of researchers, including Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences, shows it may have happened in China as far back as 40,000 years ago.