Humanities & Society

A biography of St. Patrick is due out just in time for March 17.St. Patrick’s Day has become an excuse for Americans of all ethnic backgrounds to break out the green and head to their local parade or pub and imbibe in Irish beer and corned beef and cabbage. And just in time for this year’s celebration of St. Patrick’s feast day comes a book that will have many — even the true Irish — saying, “I didn’t know that” about Ireland’s beloved patron saint. Many of the stories about St. Patrick that have been passed down for generations, including the one about him ridding Ireland of its snakes, are false, says an expert in Celtic and classical studies at Washington University in St. Louis in a book being released in early March.

In some people smoking rewires the brain, producing a powerful addiction that may never be entirely cured, experts say. An estimated 35 million smokers try to kick the habit each year, but only about 7 percent succeed in remaining smoke-free for more than a year. Most relapse within a few days of quitting and require multiple attempts before they can give up cigarettes. “The people who could quit, quit. Now we’re left with a group of really committed smokers,” explains WUSTL geneticist Laura Bierut in a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch news article.

Public intellectuals — a class of specialists, all-purpose thinkers — will gather from 10-11:30 a.m. Feb. 12 in Graham Chapel at Washington University in St. Louis to have a “Conversation” about, well, public intellectuals. As part of the university’s yearlong 150th anniversary celebration, Arts & Sciences is sponsoring “Conversations,” a four-part series bringing some of the nation’s top scholars together to discuss key issues that will affect the future of the university, the community and the world.

Michael Les Benedict, a professor of history at the Moritz School of Law at Ohio State University, is an authority on Anglo-American constitutional and legal history, the history of civil rights and liberties, and the federal system. Benedict will present “The People Themselves: The Constitutional Responsibility of the American People” at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, February 11 in Graham Chapel.

Rabbi SusanTalve, a strong believer in Tikkun Olam — healing the world — is working to improve relationships among groups and to improve conditions for those in need in the City of St. Louis.

The Counsel for the NAACP, the Chief Judge Emeritus and Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and experts on American Indian water rights, globalization, civil rights, women’s legal history, disability rights, death penalty, and economics are part of the spring lineup for the School of Law’s sixth annual Public Interest Law Speaker Series.

Martin Luther King, Jr.Jan. 19 marks the national observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Several events are planned on both the Hilltop and Medical campuses to commemorate King’s contributions and legacy. All are free and open to the public.

As part of Washington University’s Sesquicentennial celebration, Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work (GWB), will host a lecture series titled “Exploring the Impact of Economic Inequality Upon American Society.” The series will kick off Jan. 21 with a lecture by Ichiro Kawachi, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and director of the Harvard Center for Society and Health, on “”Why Inequality is Harmful to Your Health,” at 1:10 p.m. in Brown Hall Lounge.

In an effort to foster and encourage productive and proactive dialogue about race within the community of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work (GWB) at Washington University and the St. Louis region, the Society of Black Student Social Workers (SBSSW) will host “Celebrating King Holiday 2004: Forum on Race,” Jan. 19 from 2-6 p.m. in room 100 of Brown Hall. The guest speaker for this event is Tim Wise, a social justice activist and senior advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute, who will speak on the topic of white privilege. His lecture, which will follow a professionally facilitated discussion on race relations with members of the student body and the greater GWB community, will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Human nuclear cataract (as seen through a slit lamp)Ophthalmology researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a key risk factor for the development of cataracts. For the first time, they have demonstrated an association between loss of gel in the eye’s vitreous body — the gel that lies between the back of the lens and the retina — and the formation of nuclear cataracts, the most common type of age-related cataracts.