Humanities & Society

Washington University faculty and staff make news around the world. Following is a representative sampling of media coverage from clippings and electronic sources.

FlinnOn Feb. 27, the John Jay School of Criminal Law will release its report on the abuse of minors by priests from 1950 to 2002. Those who have seen it, claim the report will demonstrate that roughly 4,500 priests abused 11,000 minors during that time and that the abuse took place in 70 out of 90 dioceses in America. Frank K. Flinn, Ph.D., professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert on the Catholicism, claims that the sex-abuse scandal is “far-and-away the most serious crisis to confront the American Catholic Church in its entire history.”

Herma Hill Kay, the Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Professor of Law and former dean at the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall), will deliver a lecture on “Celebrating Early Women Law Professors” 9 a.m. March 4 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall. The lecture will follow the Women’s Law Caucus’ fifth annual International Women’s Day Celebration at 8 a.m. in the Janite Lee Reading Room, honoring Kay, Washington University School of Law alumnae who graduated 50 or more years ago, and the law school’s first three tenured women professors, Susan Appleton, Kathleen Brickey, and Karen Tokarz.

Conservative political analyst, lawyer and best selling author Ann Coulter contends that America’s media landscape is strewn with examples of media abuse, liberal manipulation and Democratic conspiracies against Republicans.

Richards”The Tenth Circuit’s decision upholding the constitutionality of the ‘Do Not Call’ registry is a straightforward application of the Supreme Court’s past rulings on commercial speech,” says Neil M. Richards, an expert in the fields of privacy law and constitutional law and an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Telemarketers are a business like any other, and when they engage in abusive and annoying conduct in their attempt to sell its products, they should be subject to consumer protection regulation just like any other business.”

Social inequalities in schools and neighborhoods will be addressed by leading national scholars as well as prominent local scholars, experts and activists during a daylong conference Feb. 27 at Washington University. WUSTL’s Program in Social Thought & Analysis (STA) in Arts & Sciences is sponsoring the conference, titled “Inequalities in Schools & Neighborhoods: St. Louis and Beyond.”

The soon to be released Mel Gibson movie “The Passion of The Christ” is creating quite a stir among religious experts, as well as lay people. Many say the movie has anti-Semitic overtones. But according to Frank K. Flinn, Ph.D., professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis, the Jews had nothing to do with killing Jesus — the Romans are actually to blame.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will speak on “Our Environmental Destiny” for the Washington University Assembly Series at 11 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 25 in Graham Chapel. Kennedy has devoted his career to protecting the environment and has used his legal expertise to reduce pollution. He is a clinical professor and supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University’s School of Law in New York. The Clinic takes a leading role in protecting New York City’s water supply and reservoirs. He helped lead the fight to turn back the anti-environmental legislation during the 104th Congress. His reputation is built on a number of successful legal actions, including prosecuting governments and companies for polluting the Hudson River and suing sewage treatment plants to force compliance with the Clean Water Act.

With the graying of America, millions of people across the nation are facing the same tough question: when do older people become unsafe drivers? In one of the first studies to track driving performance in older adults, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found that over time, driving abilities predictably worsen in individuals with early Alzheimer’s disease and, to a lesser extent, in older adults without dementia. People with mild dementia had the fastest rate of decline, but there also were declines in nondemented study participants. The researchers also found that increased age alone appeared to be a risk factor in driving performance. Because Alzheimer’s disease is progressive and driving performance inevitably does worsen, the challenge is to figure out how to predict and evaluate dangerous declines in driving performance. The researchers suggest that testing individuals with mild dementia every six months might be a useful way to keep unsafe drivers off the roads.

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.