Humanities & Society

An important debate among the three candidates for Missouri’s hotly contested 3rd District seat in the U.S. Congress will begin at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 in the May Auditorium of Simon Hall. Free and open to the public, the candidate debate is sponsored by the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, and three local media outlets: KETC-TV Channel 9, KWMU public radio and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

EarlyGerald Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the Department of English and director of the Center for the Humanities, both in Arts & Sciences, has received a $222,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Division of Education Programs. The grant will fund “Teaching Jazz as American Culture,” an NEH Summer Institute to be held at Washington University in 2005.

Why do some people live longer?Researchers at the School of Medicine will head an ambitious study of people who live exceptionally long and healthy lives to identify the factors that account for their longevity. A team led by Michael Province, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics and genetics, received a $4 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to establish a Data Management and Coordinating Center for the Exceptional Longevity Family Study.

One goal of these talks is to provide a forum for the University community to engage in a discussion of legal, social and ethical issues.

It’s a compilation of essays spanning four decades; they offer clear, no-nonsense economic policy analysis.

During her talk Sept. 15 in Graham Chapel for the Assembly Series, she will be “Handicapping the Presidential Election.”

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are seeking women who have had two or more unexplained first trimester miscarriages to evaluate an experimental treatment to help women carry babies to term.

Arianna Huffington combines humor with intelligence to expose what she sees as fanatics, fools, and pigs at the trough. When she speaks at Washington University on Sept. 15 for the Assembly Series, she will be “Handicapping the presidential race.”

Approximately 1 million stroke victims suffer from a condition called aphasia, which can affect reading, writing, speaking or understanding speech. Generally, speech therapists rely on their own experience and intuition to determine treatment for these patients, but a multidisciplinary research team from the School of Medicine has developed a speech rehabilitation program using the same evidence-based approach used by physicians and surgeons.

A Christian, a clown and a scientist — It may sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but it’s actually an accurate description of the life of WUSM professor Dana Abendschein. The following St. Louis Post-Dispatch article by Harry Jackson Jr. tells the story of how an overachieving researcher found fulfillment in a clown suit.