Humanities & Society

ShangeNtozake Shange, author of the revolutionary “choreopoem” for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, will deliver the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture for the Assembly Series at 4 p.m. Thurs., April 8th in Graham Chapel.

Ben Malcolmson, sports editor of The Daily Trojan at the University of Southern California, explores the athletic and academic success of Washington University, which has won 12 Division III national championships in the last 15 years, despite the innate differences within the realms of Division I and Division III athletics programs.

Photo by David Kilper / WUSTL PhotoWashington University’s new Earth & Planetary Sciences Building.Earth Day may arrive each April, but for architecture students and faculty, environmental design is increasingly part of the year-round curriculum. At the same time, a growing number of American universities are challenging themselves to implement green principles on their own campuses. From ivy-covered walls and tree-lined walkways, new ideals are taking shape: highly efficient buildings — constructed of local, sustainable materials — that reduce waste and minimize strain on local infrastructures; a holistic approach that considers operational as well as construction costs; and entire universities that might someday achieve net zero environmental impact.

What are the origins of intolerance and prejudice? How are intolerance and prejudice similar, and how are they different? Are there certain people who are more intolerant or more prejudiced than others? How can the social problem of intolerance and prejudice be solved? These are just a few of the questions to be addressed as a panel of internationally recognized scholars assembles at Washington University in St. Louis on April 2 for a an interdisciplinary forum on issues of “Intolerance and Prejudice.”

Some of the world’s top scholars on modern human origins will gather March 26 at Washington University in St. Louis for the last of a four-part series of “Conversations” on key issues that will affect the future of the university, the community and the world. Arts & Sciences is sponsoring the “Conversations,” which are free and open to the public, as part of the university’s 150th anniversary celebration. The “Modern Human Origins” Conversation will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Graham Chapel.

Bust of NefertitiDuring the Age of Imperialism, historical pieces such as the Bust of Nefertiti were taken from their home countries and installed in major museums throughout the world. Leading academics, authors and curators will examine whether these works of art should be returned to their source nations at the “Imperialism, Art & Restitution” conference March 26-27 at the Washington University School of Law.

WarrenThe United States’ recent economic slowdown has been punctuated by some of the largest bankruptcies in history, including Enron and WorldCom. Leading academics and prominent practitioners will examine the fallout of these bankruptcies at the F. Hodge O’Neal Corporate and Securities Law Symposium April 2 at the Washington University School of Law.

LevitteJean-David Levitte, French Ambassador to the United States, will deliver a lecture on “The United States and France in a World Transformed,” at noon March 13 in the Uncas A. Whitaker Hall auditorium on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

A psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis says that people who suffer from social anxiety disorders can receive help through cognitive behavior therapy.Citing statistics that show that many people fear public speaking more than death, comedian Jerry Seinfeld once joked that if you’re at a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy. But for people who suffer from social anxiety disorders, one of which is public speaking, it’s no laughing matter. These people’s personal lives and careers can be sidelined by fear of certain social situations, such as speaking with a boss or authority figure, making telephone calls or attending parties. The good news is that these disorders are highly treatable through cognitive behavior therapy, in particular, group therapy, according to a psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis.

Heavy drinking is associated with a number of problems, but one surprisingly common problem involves not remembering large chunks of time. Called alcohol-induced blackouts, these memory losses were reported by more than 39 percent of women and more than 50 percent of men studied by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Queensland Institute on Medical Research in Australia. The researchers also found that genetic factors play a big role in whether or not a person blacks out after heavy drinking. Studying more than 2,300 pairs of Australian twins, the research team was able to determine that more than 50 percent of the risk of blacking out seems to be controlled by genetic factors, and the role of genes is even greater in people who report blacking out multiple times.