Black Lives and Spatial Matters

Black Lives and Spatial Matters

Policing Blackness and Practicing Freedom in Suburban St. Louis

“Black Lives and Spatial Matters” is a call to reconsider the epistemic violence that is committed when scholars, policymakers, and the general public continue to frame Black precarity as just another racial, cultural, or ethnic conflict that can be solved solely through legal, political, or economic means. Jodi Rios argues that the historical and material […]
When the conspiracy is real

When the conspiracy is real

Umbrella Man. Outside agitators. Agents provocateur. As protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd continue, conspiracy theories and “false flag” charges have flown fast and furious. But sometimes the conspiracy is real. In “F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature” (2015), William J. Maxwell, professor of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, details a decades-long harassment campaign waged against prominent African American writers and activists.
It’s time for change

It’s time for change

Three esteemed Arts & Sciences faculty members discuss the social movement against police brutality taking place across the nation and the world, and its implications for teaching, research and higher education.
What does science tell us about Adam and Eve?

What does science tell us about Adam and Eve?

In his book The Genealogical Adam & Eve: Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry, S. Joshua Swamidass, MD, associate professor of Pathology & Immunology in the School of Medicine and of Biomedical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, uses science to show that Adam and Eve could have existed and that theology and science don’t lie nearly so far apart.
Explaining push to ‘defund police’

Explaining push to ‘defund police’

In the wake of national protests following the death of George Floyd, some activists are calling on cities to defund their police departments. But what does that mean exactly? Robert Motley, a PhD candidate in the Brown School and manager of the Race & Opportunity Lab at Washington University in St. Louis, explained it’s more of a reallocation of funds for public safety and health.
Uncontrollable Blackness

Uncontrollable Blackness

African American Men and Criminality in Jim Crow New York

Early twentieth-century African American men in northern urban centers like New York faced economic isolation, segregation, a biased criminal justice system, and overt racial attacks by police and citizens. In this book, Douglas J. Flowe interrogates the meaning of crime and violence in the lives of these men, whose lawful conduct itself was often surveilled […]
Modeling study: COVID-19 stay-at-home policies to be relaxed before pandemic peaks

Modeling study: COVID-19 stay-at-home policies to be relaxed before pandemic peaks

Relaxing stay-at-home social and business policies will be accompanied by increases in the infection rate, and the race for a vaccine will lose its value to big Pharma almost with each passing day. Those are the main findings by two economists from Washington University in St. Louis and another from the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, who investigated the properties of the optimal lockdown policy.
Acree wins LASA Best Book Award

Acree wins LASA Best Book Award

William Acree, associate professor of Spanish in Arts & Sciences, has won a Best Book Award from the 19th Century Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). The award was announced May15, in conjunction with LASA’s 2020 International Congress.
Older Stories