Humanities & Society

Congress has allowed the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to expire as of Oct. 1, leading to the demise of one of the most successful government programs ever implemented, said Tim McBride, an expert on health economics at Washington University in St. Louis.

A more comprehensive picture of mental health that includes subjective well-being and other positive mental health characteristics could lead to more successful educational experiences among black youth, finds a recent study from Sean Joe, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

The United States earns failing grades when it comes to the number of people walking to work and school and the number of walkable communities, finds a new national report. Amy Eyler, associate professor at the Brown School, serves on the advisory panel for the National Walking and Walkable Communities Report Card, released Sept. 14.

Nancy Y. Reynolds and Anne-Marie McManus, both of Arts & Sciences, discuss the environmental humanities and their new Mellon Sawyer Seminar, “Grounding the Ecocritical.”

Rescinding DACA will deprive Houston of a substantial workforce at the very moment the city needs that workforce most, argues water management expert Derek Hoeferlin, associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Trump administration on Sept. 4 announced plans to end DACA, which protects nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. The president’s decision is not only regrettable, it was entirely unnecessary, says Stephen Legomsky, the John S. Lehmann University Professor Emeritus and renowned expert on immigration law.

As a foreign correspondent, alumna Robin McDowell and a team of investigative reporters exposed the widespread use of slave labor in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia. Unbeknown to many, this seafood could end up in your local grocery store or favorite restaurant.

Mark Rank has been studying economic insecurity in America for more than two decades. His findings? You may be more at risk than you think. Why is economic insecurity such a problem in the U.S. and what can we do about it?

In the wake of the Aug. 12 confrontations between protesters and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, some progressives are calling for legal restrictions on the display of the Nazi flag. These arguments are entirely understandable, but they often misapply existing First Amendment law, and they suppress free speech values that progressives — more than anyone else — should want to defend, says a constitutional law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Should physicians be required to disclose their religious beliefs to patients? How should we think about institutional conscience in the health care setting? How should health care providers deal with families with religious objections to withdrawing treatment? These questions and more are tackled in a new book co-edited by an expert on health law at Washington University in St. Louis.