Humanities & Society

CraigSen. Larry Craig’s arrest for alleged gay overtures in a Minneapolis restroom may spell the end of his political career, but some in the lesbian, gay and bisexual community are hoping the scandal has a silver lining. “Regardless of Larry Craig’s true sexual orientation, the real story here is the extremes that some people must go through to hide their real self from a hostile society,” says James Reid, a clinical psychologist who studies sexual identity and prejudice at Washington University in St. Louis.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton was among a delegation of eight college and university presidents who traveled with U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to Chile and Brazil last week (Aug. 18-24) to promote higher education partnerships and exchanges between the United States and Latin America.

The Fall 2007 Assembly Series parts with some of the traditions of the 54-year-old lecture series, while maintaining its mission of presenting to the Washington University community some of the most distinctive and vibrant voices of the day.

“With African-Americans and other minority groups having both problem and pathological gambling rates that are 2-3 times higher than Caucasian gamblers, accurate diagnosis is essential to treat gambling addiction,” says Renee Cunningham-Williams, Ph.D., a leading gambling addictions expert and visiting associate professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. In a first step to close this gap in care, Cunningham-Williams successfully led the development and testing of a new assessment tool, the Gambling Assessment Module, to determine the reliability of current pathological gambling disorder criteria.

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

“If all of the other defendants accept plea deals, and Vick does not, Vick will become the last man standing,” says Christopher A. Bracey, associate professor of law and of African and African-American studies at Washington University in St. Louis. “This means that he will not only bear the brunt of a focused prosecution, but one substantially assisted by his former co-defendants.” He is following the case and is available for interviews.

GibsonA 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision protecting the right of judicial candidates to speak freely about controversial issues opened the door for state judicial election campaigns to become increasingly nasty, bitter and politicized. However, the Court’s decision has not directly damaged the court system’s legitimacy in the eyes of citizens, suggests a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

CoburnThink you know your daughter’s potential college roommate for her freshman year? Think again. Not to imply that your daughter will be rooming with an alien being, but as Facebook.com continues to gain popularity, it’s become easier for students to post information that may or may not always be true, which can pose problems for professors, friends and future employers. Students need to remember that a Facebook.com posting becomes public information. And the persona they create online may be hard to maintain once they arrive on campus, says a leading expert on the college experience.

Horse Series by Robert Boston is currently on display on the second floor of the Ferrell Learning and Teaching Center. The photos in the series focus on the world-famous Clydesdale horses at Grant’s Farm.

Steven SmithBy claiming far-reaching and unprecedented executive privilege in its power struggles with the U.S. Congress, the Bush White House has roiled the political waters, forcing both Democrats and Republicans to weigh near-term political consequences of their response against a real and tangible threat to the long-term constitutional powers of Congress, suggests a congressional expert from Washington University in St. Louis.