Humanities & Society

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.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Susan Faludi will give an Assembly Series lecture titled “Gender Roles: A Generation of Change” at 11 a.m. Oct. 13 in Graham Chapel. The lecture, also the keynote address of the 30th annual Mr. and Mrs. Spencer T. Olin Conference, will be followed by a panel discussion from 2-4 p.m. in the […]

Please note: These student leader sources are from the 2004 presidential debate, and are not associated with the 2008 vice-presidential debate. Also: Student Leaders at the Debate Available for Interviews Also: Students with Tickets to the Debate Available for Interviews Also: International Students Available for Interviews Katherine Fleming Katherine Fleming is the legislative representative of […]

The top economic advisers for President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry will debate at 8 a.m. Oct. 8, the day of the second presidential debate, which will take place at Washington University in St. Louis. The event will be held at Lee Auditorium in the Missouri History Museum, Lindell Boulevard at DeBaliviere Avenue in St. Louis’ Forest Park. John Berry, columnist for Bloomberg News, will moderate the debate between the two advisers.

FaludiPulitzer Prize-winning author, Susan Faludi will present “Gender Roles: A Generation of Change” at 11 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 13 in Graham Chapel. Faludi is the author of two books. Her talk is the keynote address of the 30th annual Mr. and Mrs. Spencer T. Olin conference.