Humanities & Society

Andrew McCabe, JD ’93, was always interested in criminal law but an internship he had while a law student at WashU convinced him to become an FBI agent. After a long career that’s including busting up crime rings and fighting terrorists, he’s been named deputy director of one of the nation’s top security organizations.

Although one can fault the Obama administration for its tepid policy towards Syria, President Donald Trump’s April 6 air strikes against a Syrian military base take the U.S. policy towards Syria to a new low, said an expert on international war crimes at Washington University in St. Louis.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has heard arguments on Mississippi HB 1523, which allows people with certain religious beliefs to refuse goods and services to LGBTQ and unmarried people. The bill is a textbook example of an unconstitutional law, says a law and religion scholar at Washington University in St. Louis.

Motivational prompts to save tax refunds and suggested savings amounts for the tax refund can increase saving among low- and moderate-income households, finds a new experimental study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Increases in gasoline prices are associated with increases in child maltreatment referral rates, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Opioids, including heroin and prescription drugs, killed more than 33,000 people in 2015, more than any year on record, according to the CDC. President Trump’s proposed budget aims to address the crisis with a $500 million increase in prevention and treatment, but it isn’t enough to address the issue, says an expert on substance use disorder treatment.

Without public spaces for debate and discussion, our ideas and our expressions stay in our private spaces and we don’t have opportunities to engage with each other, argues John Inazu, the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law & Religion.

While President Trump and a Republican controlled legislature look to make good on campaign promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, political reality is kicking in, says a health economist at Washington University in St. Louis.

American employers increasingly rely on large datasets and computer algorithms to decide who gets interviewed, hired or promoted. Pauline Kim, employment law expert, explains that when algorithms rely on inaccurate, biased or unrepresentative data, they may systematically disadvantage racial and ethnic minorities, women and other historically disadvantaged groups.

Jeffrey McCune discusses his course “The Politics of Kanye West: Black Genius and Sonic Aesthetics.”