Humanities & Society

Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, has been selected as the 23rd U.S. poet laureate, a move that will inspire Native Americans throughout the country, says Kellie Thompson, director of the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

On that historic day 243 years ago, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. But it would be weeks before the Founding Fathers would actually sign the handwritten document now housed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. In the meantime, official broadsides — one of which is showcased at Washington University in St. Louis — were printed and posted on the doors of courthouses across the nation.

In the United States, almost 50,000 people die every year from suicide. While participating in a June 13 briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., a Washington University in St. Louis expert testified that — amid the need nationally to stem violence in schools and elsewhere — suicide remains preventable.

Early exposure to emotional violence “significantly” increases the chances that youths will contemplate suicide, according to new research from three countries conducted by the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Kathy Kraninger, who was named director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) six months ago, will talk about the bureau’s new directions and initiatives in savings policy at 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 12, in Hillman Hall’s Clark-Fox Forum.

The standards and expectations to which men and woman generally conform impact health across life stages, health sectors and world regions, finds a new Brown School study. It’s part of a series of research being done that aims to promote gender-equitable policies and programs.

Nebraska’s legislature, assisted by research and guidance from Washington University in St. Louis, on May 24 unanimously  approved a universal Child Development Account (CDA) policy that will cover every resident born in the state on or after Jan. 1, 2020. Margaret Clancy, policy director for the Center for Social Development at the Brown School, advised lawmakers on the policy.

On May 22, the Washington University Prison Education Project (PEP) conducted its first Commencement at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center in Pacific, Missouri. Joe Angeles, director of Washington University Photo Services, documented the day.

Michael Bloomberg, the 108th mayor of New York City, addressed the crisis of our politics and our planet during his Commencement address to the Class of 2019 at Washington University in St. Louis. “We have to reclaim our civic dialogue from those who are debasing and degrading it and preventing us from getting things done,” Bloomberg said.

Washington University in St. Louis is committed to engaging with its global partners to help address our biggest challenges together. This spirit of collaboration was evident at the inaugural meeting of the Africa initiative, held April 23 on the Danforth Campus.