Humanities & Society

ChideyaFew people are more knowledgeable about the complicated reasons why young adults in America, as well as the traditionally disenfranchised groups, don’t exercise their right to vote. Farai Chideya will explore the reasons for this and discuss ways to reach these large groups of Americans, at her talk on Oct. 27.

In his most recent book, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response, published in 2004, author and poet Peter Balakian describes the systematic deportation and murder of as many as 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. The book was a New York Times Notable Book and a New York Times best seller.

He was nominated for his seventh collection of poetry, The Rest of Love: Poems; it’s the second time he’s been up for the prize.

National experts addressed the most pressing political issues in health care at the Oct. 7 “Health Care Challenges Facing the Nation” conference at the Washington University Medical Center. Prominent among the bevy of hot topics were discussions about limiting access to health care to help alleviate rapidly escalating health care costs. Read more in the following St. Louis Post-Dispatch article by Rachel Melcer.

John C. Danforth, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will deliver a major policy address at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 in Graham Chapel. Danforth has a distinguished record of public service. Best-known for his 18-year run as Republican senator from Missouri, he also has served in a number of special capacities, most notably as special counsel to investigate the federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and as special envoy for peace to Sudan.

The Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values, in conjunction with the John M. Olin School of Business and the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, will present a tax ethics forum on Oct. 29. “An Ethics Forum for Tax Practitioners” will be held from 8:45 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 29, preceded by a continental breakfast at 7:45 a.m., at May Auditorium in John E. Simon Hall. Peter J. Wiedenbeck, the Joseph H. Zumbalen Professor of Law, and Nancy Pechloff, CPA, of the Olin School of Business will moderate the forum featuring five panelists.

Washington University School of Law will host the interdisciplinary conference, “Whiteness: Some Critical Perspectives,” 9 a.m.- 6 p.m. Oct. 29 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall. “This important conference, which brings together leading scholars in the fields of critical race theory and whiteness studies, will explore the ways whiteness and white privilege create, entrench, and reproduce themselves,” says Barbara Flagg, professor of law and conference organizer.

SternThe eyes may well be the window to the soul, but they also are indicators of the mind’s condition. People who have watched the presidential and vice-presidential debates earlier this month and preparing for the final debate on Oct. 13 could gather clues to the candidates’ state of mind by watching the candidates’ eyes. According to John Stern, Ph.D., professor emeritus of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, and pioneer of blinking research, there is solid evidence that people blink frequently at points in time when they momentarily stop taking in and processing information.

Is depression rooted in our genes?Researchers at the School of Medicine are recruiting volunteers as part of an international study designed to uncover the genetic basis of major depression. Identification of susceptibility genes could revolutionize the current understanding of the disease and guide the design of new drugs to prevent or treat this debilitating disorder.

President Bush and Senator John Kerry take the stage at WUSTL tonight in the second presidential debate. This will be the first time Bush and Kerry will face each other directly on economic and domestic issues. But, the main topic is likely to be the war in Iraq, as discussed below in this article by Jon Sawyer of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.