Humanities & Society

To celebrate nearly 100 years of existence and a new era in social work education, the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis is publishing What We Believe: A History of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work: 1909- 2007. Author Candace O’Connor begins the book with a look at poverty in St. Louis and the early history of social work education locally, and concludes with an overview of more recent accomplishments and a glimpse at the Brown School’s future. Threaded throughout the book are milestones and evolutions in social work education as well as first-person accounts from alumni and current and former faculty.

Ensuring that the elderly have access to transportation while preventing age-related driving impairments will be the focus of the eighth annual Friedman Conference on Aging, “Are We Licensed for Life? Transportation and Driving Issues in an Aging Society.”

Citing his creative experimental investigations of false memory and underlying processes that have led to a new understanding of human memory, the Society of Experimental Psychologists has awarded its highest honor to WUSTL psychology professor Henry L. “Roddy” Roediger III.

The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute of Washington University School of Law announced a two-year project to study the international law regarding crimes against humanity and to draft a multilateral treaty condemning and prohibiting such crimes. Leila Sadat, J.D., the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law and director of the Harris Institute, recently convened the first meeting of the project’s steering committee.

Harriet Hosmer, *Oenone* (1854-55)Neoclassical sculptor Harriet Goodhue Hosmer (1830-1908) was one of the most successful women artists of her day, described by the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning as “a perfectly emancipated female.” She was also the first woman to study anatomy at what would become the Washington University School of Medicine and produced many of her most significant works — such as the bronze statue of Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton in Lafayette Park — for St. Louis patrons. This summer the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will join other local institutions in celebrating Hosmer’s life and work with a special Teaching Gallery exhibition, on view May 2 to July 21.

The School of Medicine and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) have announced a research collaboration that aims to develop new and improved ways to diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s disease. The major focus of the alliance will be biomarkers, characteristic changes in the brain and spinal fluid that physicians can use to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and track its response to treatment.

A team of researchers from Washington University and the Israeli Institute of Technology (Technion) in Haifa, Israel, has developed a technique to detect the ancestry of disease genes in hybrid, or mixed, human populations.

Co-author of Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, Alvin Poussaint, will present the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial lecture for the Assembly Series. The talk will be held at 4 p.m., on Tuesday, April 15 in the Laboratory Sciences Auditorium. Poussaint co-wrote Come on People with activist comedian Bill Cosby […]

An expert on race relations, prejudice and diversity issues in a multicultural society, Alvin Poussaint, M.D., will present the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecture for the Assembly Series. The talk will be held at 4 p.m., Tuesday, April 15, in the Laboratory Sciences Auditorium on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

Patterns in the Midwest this spring are eerily reminiscent of 1993 and 1994, back-to-back years of serious flooding. But Midwesterners have not learned “geologic reality,” says Robert E. Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences.