Newsroom Stories

Prominent criminal defense attorney and civil rights advocate Michael Pinard, J.D., will address the pressing problem of prisoner reentry in America to kick off the spring lineup of Washington University School of Law’s 11th annual Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series on Jan. 22. The spring series includes civil rights experts, an award-winning journalist, a top intellectual property law scholar and a leading advocate for children. The law school’s Clinical Education Program sponsors the series. All lectures will be held at noon in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall unless otherwise noted. They are free and open to the public.

*The Spy*The price of glory. The brutality of war. A lawless free-fire zone brimming with loyalists and revolutionaries. In February two powerhouses of American theater, The Guthrie Theater and The Acting Company, will join forces to present a pair of adventure classics at Washington University’s Edison Theatre. On Feb. 13 director Davis McCallum will lead a cast of 12 in William Shakespeare’s epic King Henry V. Then, on Feb. 14, John Miller-Stephany, associate artistic director of the Guthrie, will direct Jeffrey Hatcher’s world premiere adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Spy.

Johannes Von MoltkeRecent blockbuster films and “television events” devoted to World War II and its aftermath have claimed to break new ground by breaking taboos on the representation of German suffering, yet the work of German writer and director Alexander Kluge predates these developments by decades. On Jan. 27 Johannes von Moltke, professor of screen arts and cultures at the University of Michigan, will speak on “Confusion of Feelings: War and Emotion in the Films of Alexander Kluge” as part of the Center for the Humanities’ 2009 Faculty Fellows’ Lecture and Workshop Series.

Carolyn ForchéPoet Carolyn Forché, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22. Known as a “poet of witness,” Forché is the author of four books of poetry, including Gathering The Tribes, The Country Between Us, The Angel of History and Blue Hour.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo ServicesSathya Sridharan as HamletFor many actors Hamlet is the Mt. Everest of roles: a four-hour, 3,000-line trek to be approached only at the height of one’s professional powers. As a result many productions feature leads — from Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud to Mel Gibson and Kenneth Branagh — who are well into middle age. Which is a fundamental misreading of the text, argues Henry I. Schvey, Ph.D., professor of drama in the Performing Arts Department (PAD), who will direct a new production Feb. 13 to 22.

It’s a little like finding out that Superman is actually Clark Kent. A team of biologists at Washington University in St. Louis has discovered that two vital cellular components, nuclear RNA Polymerases IV and V (Pol IV and V), found only in plants, are actually specialized forms of RNA Polymerase II, an essential enzyme of all eukaryotic organisms, including humans.

The WUSM Student Arts Commission is currently accepting submissions for the upcoming Student, Faculty, and Staff Art Show. Original works in all media will be displayed. All pieces should be delivered to the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center security desk with a completed submission form by January 9, 2009.

The inauguration of the first African-American president on January 20, held in such close proximity to the annual commemoration of the birth of Martin Luther King Jr. on January 19, as well as the “Big Read” community book discussion on “To Kill a Mockingbird,” provided the impetus for the Assembly Series to take on a project featuring the Human Race Machine (HRM).

An expert on the Second Amendment says that gun owners and sellers should not be sweating bullets over Barack Obama’s election as president. Despite Obama’s record on gun control, David T. Konig, Ph.D., a professor of history in Arts & Sciences and a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, says that the right of the people to keep and bear arms will not be an issue that Obama will address as president early in his term — if at all.

Olin Business School professor Jackson Nickerson says, “ChangeCasting” is the best way for presidents and CEOs to build trust, create understanding and enact change with all of their constituents and employees. Nickerson’s ChangeCasting is a new web-based approach to communication that allows executives to lead and accelerate change within their organizations. It opens up a two-way street between the corner office and employees at every level of a company.