The motherhood challenge
In her research on mothers, Caitlyn Collins, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, has found that moms in the U.S. (and dads) are struggling to feel like good parents when they don’t get any mandated parental leave.
The shifting First Amendment
Gregory Magarian, professor of law, explains how the Supreme Court has turned the First Amendment on its head.
Helping the unseen
Bruce Goldstein, JD ’80, is president and executive director of Farmworker Justice, which fights for better working conditions and wages for the 2.4 million farm workers in the U.S.
Violence and racism shape views of environmental issues
People living in marginalized communities in St. Louis, particularly African Americans, have been enduring, as one study participant said “real problems,” such as violence and racism, that are perceived as more immediate than issues of climate change, finds a study from the Brown School.
Ancient DNA study tracks formation of populations across Central Asia
Ethically sourced and informed by archaeology, an ambitious new study reports genome-wide DNA information from 523 ancient humans collected at archaeological sites across the Near East and Central and South Asia. Washington University in St. Louis brought key partners together to generate the world’s largest study of ancient DNA, published this week in the journal Science.
Chua, Danforth to discuss political tribalism Sept. 12
Best-selling author Amy Chua and former U.S. Sen. John Danforth will come together for a public conversation, “Overcoming Political Tribalism and Recovering Our American Democracy,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 12, in Graham Chapel at Washington University in St. Louis.
Fentanyl, Inc.
How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic
A deeply human story, Fentanyl, Inc. is the first deep-dive investigation of a hazardous and illicit industry that has created a worldwide epidemic, ravaging communities and overwhelming and confounding government agencies that are challenged to combat it. “A whole new crop of chemicals is radically changing the recreational drug landscape,” writes Ben Westhoff. “These are known as Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and they include replacements for known drugs like heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana. They are synthetic, made in a laboratory, and are much more potent than traditional drugs”—and all-too-often tragically lethal.
Time to retire the ‘pristine myth’ of climate change
Anthropologist T.R. Kidder in Arts & Sciences contributed to one of the first “big data” studies in archaeology to tackle broader questions of how humans have reshaped landscapes, ecosystems and potentially climate over millennia. The analysis published Aug. 30 in the journal Science challenges conventional ideas that man’s impact has been “mostly recent.”
Advancing research, international partnerships
International social work students recently completed work in a first-of-its-kind intensive summer seminar focused on advanced research methods. The event was presented thanks to an ongoing partnership between Washington University in St. Louis and its McDonnell International Scholars Academy partner Xi’an Jiaotong University.
St. Louis area school discipline gap larger than thought
In St. Louis area schools, students who are black, male and have a disability are far more likely to be suspended than those least at risk — 20, 30 or even 60 times more likely, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and Forward Through Ferguson.
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